The Centre for Internet and Society
https://cis-india.org
These are the search results for the query, showing results 1431 to 1445.
Works of Odisha litterateur JP Das to be available online free
https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/odisha-sun-times-december-5-2015-works-of-odisha-litterateur-jp-das-to-be-available-online-free
<b>The works of bureaucrat-turned-writer from Odisha, Jagannath Prasad Das, can be accessed free online after the digitisation process is complete.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The article was published in <a class="external-link" href="http://odishasuntimes.com/2015/12/05/works-of-odisha-litterateur-jp-das-digitised-available-online-free/">Odisha Sun Times</a> on December 5, 2015.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Saraswati Samman and Sahitya Academy award winner, prominent writer, former IAS officer and cultural historian, popularly known as JP Das, has recently re-licensed 30 of his notable works under a free license called CC-by-SA 4.0. This opens up a whole new window to his books being accessible to readers for free online.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Recently, the scanning of the original books was made by the Bhubaneswar based non-profit and science education research organisation Srujanika which will now be made available after converting them into text form.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Not just Dr Das, many other notable individuals like Padma Shree Debi Prasanna Pattanayak, Manoj Panda, Dr Subrat Prusty, Bharat Majhi and organisations like Aama Odisha, Manik Biswanath Smrutinyasa that have come forward in the past to make their books available online using Odia Wikisource as a platform. Aama Odisha’s founder Soumya Ranjan Patnaik in a public gathering last year had permitted for relicensing and digitizing 19 volumes of Odia books published by Aama Odisha.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“I made a rather late and hesitant entry into the internet and digital world, but it has since become an integral part of my life. My introduction to digital books was through Srujanika’s digitised version of Purnachandra Odia Bhashakosha – all of 95,00 pages in seven volumes — which was impossible to handle on the writing table. That made me think how wonderful it would be to have all Odia books available on the internet that could be easily accessible to every interested reader,” says Das.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“As a beginning, I decided to put my own writings on the internet. Many of our young Odia writers are quite active on the social media. I hope they will take the initiative to get more and more Odia books available on the internet with the help of Odia Wikisource,” he adds.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Notably, Odia Wikisource is a sister project of the Odia Wikipedia and is available at or.wikisource.org on the internet. As a free online Odia-language library, it houses over 119 books already and all of the books are either under public domain or under the above mentioned creative commons share-alike license which gives the freedom of accessing the works for free, reuse them and even correct if any mistakes found, of course following the guidelines made by the Wikisource community. Currently, about 10 Wikisourcers are actively contributing to digitise books of various genres ranging from science to fiction to even the Odia classics.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">With more authors generously opening up their work online, it feels like they are worried of the books becoming obsolete from the new generation leaving them with no way to learn about their own language and literature. Regional languages like Odia are facing the struggle to selling more books with the growing trend of English-centric education and rat race for jobs. In such a tough situation, more popular Odia literary content is certainly going to give a boost to readership and will take the language to more people, he expressed.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/odisha-sun-times-december-5-2015-works-of-odisha-litterateur-jp-das-to-be-available-online-free'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/odisha-sun-times-december-5-2015-works-of-odisha-litterateur-jp-das-to-be-available-online-free</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaCIS-A2KOdia WikipediaAccess to Knowledge2016-01-03T10:51:10ZNews ItemOpen access in the Marathi language expands by a thousand books
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/wikimedia-blog-subhashish-panigrahi-december-3-open-access-in-marathi-language-expands-by-thousand-books
<b>As the Maharashtra Granthottejak Sanstha (MGS) celebrated its 121st anniversary recently, the organization re-licensed 1000 books under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license so that the books could be digitized and be made available on the Marathi Wikisource for millions of Marathi readers.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">This was published in <a class="external-link" href="https://blog.wikimedia.org/2015/12/03/open-access-marathi-language/">Wikimedia Blog</a> on December 3, 2015.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">As the <i><a href="http://granthottejak.org/about.html">Maharashtra Granthottejak Sanstha</a></i> (MGS) celebrated its 121st anniversary recently, the organization re-licensed 1000 books under the <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA 4.0</a> license so that the books could be digitized and be made available on the <a href="https://mr.wikisource.org/wiki/%E0%A4%AE%E0%A5%81%E0%A4%96%E0%A4%AA%E0%A5%83%E0%A4%B7%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%A0">Marathi Wikisource</a> for millions of Marathi readers.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-1"><a href="https://blog.wikimedia.org/2015/12/03/open-access-marathi-language/#cite_note-1">[1]</a></sup></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">MGS is a non-profit organization working for the preservation of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maharashtra" title="en:Maharashtra">Maharashtra’s</a> linguistic and cultural heritage. It was founded in Pune, India in 1894. Being an important archive for the preservation of many hundreds of years old manuscripts and historical artifacts from the Peshwa era, the institution is open to public for study and research.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">During the four-day anniversary celebration, the <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K" title="CIS-A2K">Centre for Internet Society’s Access to Knowledge program</a> (CIS-A2K)—an organization that supports the Wikimedia movement in India—opened a Wikipedia stall there where Marathi Wikimedians were present. Around 600 people visited the stall and learned about the news of MGS’s book donation.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Many active and new Marathi Wikimedians were present at the exhibition stall along with Abhinav Garule from the CIS-A2K program to share the incredible work Marathi Wikipedia and Wikimedia community at large are doing. Autographs of eighteen notable writers who received awards from Sanstha for different genres of writings were collected for uploading to the Wikipedia pages about them. While meeting the authors, Wikimedians also approached them to relicense some of their works under Creative Commons licenses so that they could be digitized on Wikisource and/or enrich Wikipedia—and some of the authors expressed a good deal of interest in opening up their books for Wikisource.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Some of the major books donated are <i>Peshwa Rojnishi</i> (diary of <i>Peshwa</i>), <i>Benjamin Franklin Charitra</i> (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Autobiography_of_Benjamin_Franklin"><i>The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin</i></a>), <i>Kekavali</i>, <i>S M Paranjape Charitra</i> (autobiography), <i>Letters Exchanged between the Sanstha and the British Government</i>, <i>Shinde Gharanyacha Padmamay Itihas</i> (manuscript), and <i>Marathwadyatil Arvachin Marathi Vangmay</i> (modern Marathi literature from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marathwada" title="w:Marathwada">Marathwada</a>, a region in Maharashtra) are some of the popular books read by Marathi speakers that are going to be part of the books donated by the organization.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">We reached out to Avinash Chaphekar, the joint secretary of the organization, to know more about the state of book publication and readership.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Subhashish Panigrahi (SP): Could you share your ideas of opening these invaluable books for Wikisource? How they are going to be useful for the online readers to learn about the Peshwas?</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Avinash Chaphekar (AC): These books are of historical importance and contain information that needs to reach more people; they cover topics that are rarely covered well anywhere else. Right after India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi recommended the autobiography of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin" title="en:Benjamin Franklin">Benjamin Franklin</a>, as it contains a lot of messages for a common person, a lady walked up to and asked if she could read it in Marathi. Be it such autobiographies or a poetry book like “Kekavali”, such books that were published by the MGS should not be kept closed—many readers are searching for them. We donated 800 of these old books to the Marathi Wikisource because we don’t have large presence in the media or the Internet, so how would any reader who does not know us buy a book? If these books are available online, they can at least find and read them.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>SP: Where do you think there is gap between publishers and readers today? Many Marathi books get published every year and if you search on the Internet, which many people today do, you would hardly find much.</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>AC</b>: Online readership is increasing every day, but when you look at Marathi readers, the majority of them are still buying books. During the exhibitions here (even this year!), there is always quite a rush to buy books. Only the youth and tech-savvy people read online. But most people we meet say that they feel more comfortable holding and reading physical books. Moreover, there is no concrete research validating that most of the youngsters here are accessing information only online. I still feel reading books in a conventional way by holding books in your hands will continue to exist as there is some kind of satisfaction that lies in it.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>SP: Did you know that we are going to get these books retyped, meaning that readers will not just be able to read them in their smartphones or computers but they could use the text for republishing the same books in the future? How do you think such a model will be useful for publishers?</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>AC</b>: At the MGS, we don’t have funds to republish these books, and publishers are not ready to do it no matter how historically valuable the books are—even an incredibly valuable reference book called <i>Marathi Grantha Nirmiti Watchal</i> (the history of creation of Marathi books in Marathi), authored by SG Tulpule and published by us in 1973. This book has detailed information about Marathi publications, even those that existed before printing technology existed. As many such books are not being reprinted, we cannot leave the remaining few copies to perish. Let them go online and reach millions of people.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/wikimedia-blog-subhashish-panigrahi-december-3-open-access-in-marathi-language-expands-by-thousand-books'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/wikimedia-blog-subhashish-panigrahi-december-3-open-access-in-marathi-language-expands-by-thousand-books</a>
</p>
No publisherSubhashish Panigrahi and Abhinav GaruleOpennessMarathi WikipediaCIS-A2KAccess to Knowledge2016-01-03T11:26:49ZBlog EntryDecember 2015 Bulletin
https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/december-2015-bulletin
<b>Our newsletter for the month of December 2015 is below.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) is happy to share the twelfth issue of CIS newsletter (December 2015). Previous editions of the newsletter can be accessed at <a href="http://cis-india.org/about/newsletters">http://cis-india.org/about/newsletters</a>.</p>
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<li>The <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/press-release-india-to-host-4th-global-congress-on-intellectual-property-and-the-public-interest">4th edition of the Global Congress</a> themed around "Three Decades of Openness, Two Decades of TRIPS" was organized in New Delhi from December 15 - 17, 2015. The largest ever in Asia, the Congress was jointly organised by CIS, NLU-D, Open A.I.R., CREATe, Columbia University and American University.</li>
<li>Nehaa Chaudhari <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/4th-global-congress-on-ip-and-the-public-interest-statement-of-conclusion-for-the-ip-and-development-track">summarized the developments of the 4th Global Congress on IP and the Public Interest in a blog post</a> that was originally published on the Global Congress blog.</li>
<li>Sunil Abraham wrote a blog entry stating the <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/cis-position-on-net-neutrality">institutional position of CIS on the Net Neutrality</a> discussion going on in India.</li>
<li>Catch News interviewed Sunil Abraham about the recent advertisement by Facebook titled <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/facebook-shares-10-key-facts-about-free-basics-heres-whats-wrong-with-all-10-of-them"> "What Net Neutrality Activists won't Tell You or, the Top 10 Facts about Free Basics" </a> . Sunil argued against the validity of all the 'top 10 facts'.</li>
<li>Odia author and cultural historian Jagannath Prasad Das <a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/discover-bhubaneswar-30-books-of-odia-author-and-historian-jagannath-prasad-das-to-come-online-on-odia-wikisource"> has recently permitted 30 volumes of his notable works to be re-license under an open license (Creative Commons Share-Alike 4.0 or CC-BY-SA 4.0) </a> . Subhashish Panigrahi wrote a blog post on this in Discover Bhubaneswar, a web portal in Odisha.</li>
<li>CIS has established institutional partnerships with University of Mysore and Guru G Learning Labs for furthering Wikipedia growth. Tanveer Hasan <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/analysis-of-institutional-partnerships-university-of-mysore-and-guru-g-learning-lab">analyses the developments and lists out the possible future plans</a> in this regard.</li>
<li>CIS along with Observer Research Foundation, Centre for Global Communication Studies, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania, and Internet Policy Observatory <a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/net-neutrality-across-south-asia"> organized an event in New Delhi on Net Neutrality across South Asia </a> .</li>
<li>Today the quantity of data being generated is expanding at an exponential rate. From smartphones and televisions, trains and airplanes, sensor-equipped buildings and even the infrastructures of our cities, data now streams constantly from almost every sector and function of daily life, <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/benefits-and-harms-of-big-data">stated Scott Mason in a blog post</a>.</li>
<li>The Government of India is in the process of developing 100 smart cities in India which it sees as the key to the country's economic and social growth. Vanya Rakesh <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/smart-cities-in-india-an-overview">gave an overview of the Smart Cities project currently underway in India in a blog post</a>.</li>
<li>For the second part of the Smart City podcast series, Sruthi Krishnan and Harsha K from Fields of View spoke with Sumandro Chattapadhyay on data, people, and smart cities. <a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/fov-podcast-data-people-and-smart-cities">Fields of View has produced and shared the recording</a>.</li>
<li>An extended survey of digital initiatives in arts and humanities practices in India was undertaken last year. The 'mapping digital humanities in India' enquiry began with the term 'digital humanities' itself, as a 'found' name for which one needs to excavate some meaning, context, and location in India at the present moment. P.P Sneha published the <a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/reading-from-a-distance-data-as-text">third</a>,<a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/the-infrastructure-turn-in-the-humanities">fourth</a>, and <a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/living-in-the-archival-moment">fifth</a> sections of the study this month.</li>
<li>The RAW programme has initiated a new annual conference series titled Internet Researchers' Conference (IRC). The <a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/irc16-call">first edition of the Conference</a>, organised around the theme of "studying internet in India" will be held in Delhi in February 2016</li>
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<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>----------------------------------------------<br /><a href="http://cis-india.org/accessibility">Accessibility and Inclusion<br /></a>----------------------------------------------</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Under a grant from the Hans Foundation we are doing a project on developing text-to-speech software for 15 Indian languages. The progress made so far in the project can be accessed <a href="http://cis-india.org/accessibility/resources/nvda-text-to-speech-synthesizer">here</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">►NVDA and eSpeak</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Monthly Updates</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">● <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/december-2015-report">December 2015 Report</a> (Suman Dogra; December 31, 2015).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>-----------------------------------------------------------<br /><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k">Access to Knowledge<br /></a>-----------------------------------------------------------</b><br />As part of the Access to Knowledge programme we are doing two projects. The first one (Pervasive Technologies) under a grant from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) is for research on the complex interplay between pervasive technologies and intellectual property to support intellectual property norms that encourage the proliferation and development of such technologies as a social good. The second one (Wikipedia) under a grant from the Wikimedia Foundation is for the growth of Indic language communities and projects by designing community collaborations and partnerships that recruit and cultivate new editors and explore innovative approaches to building projects.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">►Copyright and Patent</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Blog Entries</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/abuse-of-dominant-position-in-indian-competition-law-a-brief-guide">Abuse of Dominant Position in Indian Competition Law: A Brief Guide </a> (Sarthak Sood; December 9, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/gcip2015-notes-from-the-inaugural-session">GCIP2015: Notes from the Inaugural Session</a> (Spadika Jayaraj; SpicyIP; December 14, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/gcip-day-1-session-3-challenges-in-re-articulating-public-interest">GCIP Day 1 Session 3: Challenges in Re-Articulating Public Interest </a> (Spadika Jayaraj; SpicyIP; December 17, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/gcip-15-day-2-discussions-on-health-technology-innovation-and-access">GCIP 15 Day 2: Discussions on Health Technology, Innovation and Access </a> (Spadika Jayaraj; SpicyIP; December 17, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/guidelines-for-examination-of-computer-related-inventions-in-abeyance">Guidelines for Examination of Computer Related Inventions in abeyance </a> (Anubha Sinha; Anubha Sinha; December 21, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/4th-global-congress-on-ip-and-the-public-interest-statement-of-conclusion-for-the-ip-and-development-track">4th Global Congress on IP and the Public Interest: Statement of Conclusion for the IP and Development track </a> (Nehaa Chaudhari; December 25, 2015). <i>This was also published on the Global Congress Blog</i>.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Event Organized</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/call-for-participation-global-congress-on-intellectual-property-and-the-public-interest">Global Congress on Intellectual Property and the Public Interest </a> (Organized by National Law University, Delhi, American Assembly, Columbia University, Open A.I.R., American University, and CIS; New Delhi, December 15 - 17, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Participation in Event</p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/code-session">CODE Session</a> (Organized by IDRC; December 17, 2015; New Delhi). Nehaa Chaudhari and Anubha Sinha participated in the event.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Media Coverage</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/nlsiu-conference-on-access-to-copyrighted-works-for-persons-with-disability-an-enriching-experience">NLSIU Conference on Access to Copyrighted Works for Persons with Disability: An enriching experience </a> (Abolee Vaidya and Nuhar Bansal; SINAPSE; December 14, 2015). <i> This is an event report on a one-day national conference on the 'Access to Copyrighted Works for Persons with Disability' for which Pranesh Prakash was a speaker </i> .</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">►Wikipedia</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">As part of the <a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/access-to-knowledge-program-plan">project grant from the Wikimedia Foundation</a> we have reached out to more than 3500 people across India by organizing more than 100 outreach events and catalysed the release of encyclopaedic and other content under the Creative Commons (CC-BY-3.0) license in four Indian languages (21 books in Telugu, 13 in Odia, 4 volumes of encyclopaedia in Konkani and 6 volumes in Kannada, and 1 book on Odia language history in English).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Articles</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/discover-bhubaneswar-30-books-of-odia-author-and-historian-jagannath-prasad-das-to-come-online-on-odia-wikisource">30 Books of Odia Author and Historian Jagannath Prasad Das to Come Online on Odia Wikisource </a> (Subhashish Panigrahi; Discover Bhubaneswar; December 4, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/sambada-rabibara-subhashish-panigrahi-december-6-2015-odia-wikisource">ଓଡ଼ିଆ</a> <a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/sambada-rabibara-subhashish-panigrahi-december-6-2015-odia-wikisource"> </a> <a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/sambada-rabibara-subhashish-panigrahi-december-6-2015-odia-wikisource"> ଉଇକିପାଠାଗାର </a> (Subhashish Panigrahi; Sambad; December 6, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Blog Entries</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/wikimedia-blog-subhashish-panigrahi-december-3-open-access-in-marathi-language-expands-by-thousand-books">Open access in the Marathi language expands by a thousand books </a> (Subhashish Panigrahi and Abhinav Garule; December 3, 2015). <i>This was published on Wikimedia Blog</i>.</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/guru-g-learning-labs-and-cis-a2k-institutional-partnership">Guru-G Learning Labs and CIS A2K Institutional Partnership </a> (Tanveer Hasan; December 3, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/community-prioritisation-content-donation-kannada-wikisource">Community Prioritisation of Content Donation: Kannada Wikisource </a> (Tanveer Hasan; December 5, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/analysis-of-institutional-partnerships-university-of-mysore-and-guru-g-learning-lab">Analysis of Institutional Partnerships: University of Mysore and Guru G Learning Labs </a> (Tanveer Hasan; December 5, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/department-of-tourism-studies-christ-university-st-aloysius-college">Touch Point Report: Department of Tourism Studies, Christ University and St. Aloysius College, Mangalore </a> (Tanveer Hasan; December 5, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/ttt-2015">TTT 2015</a> (Tanveer Hasan; December 5, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/kannada-wikipedia-editathon-at-mangaluru">Kannada Wikipedia Editathon at Mangaluru</a> (Dr. U.B. Pavanaja; December 29, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Events Organized</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://cis-india.org/openness/discussion-on-bringing-peshwa-culture-on-marathi-wikipedia">Talk on bringing 1000 books about the culture of Maharashtra on Marathi Wikipedia </a> (The Energy and Resources Institute; Bangalore; December 1, 2015). Avinash Chaphekar, Joint Secretary, Maharashtra Granthottejak Sanstha gave a talk.</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/openness/odia-wikimedia-community-meetup-at-cuttack">Odia Wikimedia community meetup</a> (Organized by Odia Wikipedia Community and CIS; Cuttack; December 3, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/events/sau-dhuni-teen-project-december-edit-a-thon-at-womens-studies-centre-university-of-pune">Sau Dhuni Teen Project: December Edit-a-thon </a> (Women's Studies Centre, University of Pune; December 3, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Participation in Events</b></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/telugu-wikipedia-day-2015-photo-walk">Telugu Wikipedia Day 2015, Photo Walk</a> (Organized by Telugu Wikipedians; Dr. YSR State Archaeological Museum, Hyderabad; December 13, 2015). Pavan Santhosh attended the event. One of the popular Telugu news channel TV9 covered the event and telecasted the same. <a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/telugu-wikipedia-day-2015-eenadu-coverage">Eenadu published a special item on photo walk</a> on December 13, 2015.</li>
<li>English Wikipedia and the Telugu Wikipedia joint meetup and edit-a-thon (Organized by Wikipedia community; Golden Threshold, Hyderabad; December 20, 2015). The event was covered in<a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/english-wikipedia-and-the-telugu-wikipedia-joint-meetup-and-edit-a-thon-sakshi">Sakshi</a> and <a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/english-wikipedia-and-the-telugu-wikipedia-joint-meetup-and-edit-a-thon-andhra-jyoti">Andhra Jyoti</a>.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Media Coverage</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS gave its inputs to the following media coverage:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/post-more-articles-on-kannada-wikipedia">Post More Articles on Kannada Wikipedia</a> (Indian Express; Mangaluru edition; December 12, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<p>A Kannada Wikipedia Editathon was conducted in Mangalore on December 10, 2015. The following are the media coverage for the same:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/kannada-wikipedia-editathon-udayavani-coverage">Kannada Wikipedia Editathon</a> (Udayavani; December 7, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/kannada-wikipedia-editathon-vijayavani">Kannada Wikipedia Editathon</a> (Vijayavani; December 11, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/kannada-wikipedia-editathon-vijaya-karnataka">Kannada Wikipedia Editathon</a> (Vijaya Karnataka; December 11, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/kannada-wikipedia-editathon-in-mangalore-udayavani">Kannada Wikipedia Editathon</a> (Udayavani; December 11, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/kannada-wikipedia-prajavani-mangal">Kannada Wikipedia Editathon</a> (Prajavani; December 10, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/news/kannada-wikipedia-editathon-in-prajavani">Kannada Wikipedia Editathon</a> (Prajavani; December 13, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>-----------------------------------------------<br /><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance">Internet Governance<br /></a>-----------------------------------------------</b><br />As part of its research on privacy and free speech, CIS is engaged with two different projects. The first one (under a grant from Privacy International and International Development Research Centre (IDRC)) is on surveillance and freedom of expression (SAFEGUARDS). The second one (under a grant from MacArthur Foundation) is on studying the restrictions placed on freedom of expression online by the Indian government.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">►Free Speech and Expression</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Interview</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/facebook-shares-10-key-facts-about-free-basics-heres-whats-wrong-with-all-10-of-them">Facebook shares 10 key facts about Free Basics. Here's what's wrong with all 10 of them </a> (Shweta Sengar; Catch News; December 24, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Blog Entry</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/cis-position-on-net-neutrality">CIS's Position on Net Neutrality</a> (Sunil Abraham; December 4, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Event Organized</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/net-neutrality-across-south-asia">Net Neutrality across South Asia</a> (Organized by Observer Research Foundation, Centre for Global Communication Studies, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania, Internet Policy Observatory and CIS; New Delhi; December 12, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Participation in Event</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/consultation-on-understanding-the-freedom-of-expression-online-and-offline">Consultation on "Understanding the Freedom of Expression Online and Offline" </a> (Organized by Digital Empowerment Foundation and Association for Progressive Communications; YMCA, New Delhi; December 10, 2015). Jyoti Panday was a speaker at this event.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">►Big Data</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Blog Entry</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/benefits-and-harms-of-big-data">Benefits and Harms of "Big Data"</a> (Scott Mason; December 30, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">►Cyber Security</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Blog Entry</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/ground-zero-summit">Ground Zero Summit</a> (Amber Sinha; December 22, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Participation in Events</b></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://cis-india.org/telecom/news/second-regional-conference-on-connectivity-for-all-future-technologies-markets-and-regulation">Second Regional Conference on Connectivity for All: Future Technologies, Markets and Regulation </a> (Organized by International Telecommunications Society, IIMA IDEA Telecom Centre of Excellence and Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad; New Delhi; December 13 - 15, 2015). Sunil Abraham was a panelist.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Event Organized</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/bangalore-chapter-meet-dsci">Bangalore Chapter Meet - DSCI</a> (CIS, Bangalore; December 1, 2015). CIS hosted the Bangalore Chapter Meet of DSCI. Pronab Mohanty, Inspector General of Police gave a talk on Cybercrimes. Sunil Abraham presented the outcome of his study "Anonymity in Cyberspace".</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">►Privacy</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Blog Entries</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/uid-research">UID Research</a> (Vanya Rakesh; December 2, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/dna-research">DNA Research</a> (Vanya Rakesh; December 2, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/privacy-policy-research">Privacy Policy Research</a> (Vanya Rakesh; December 2, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/sectoral-privacy-research">Sectoral Privacy Research</a> (Vanya Rakesh; December 2, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/security-research">Security Research</a> (Vanya Rakesh; December 3, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/eight-key-privacy-events-in-india-in-the-year-2015">Eight Key Privacy Events in India in the Year 2015 </a> (Amber Sinha; December 31, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Participation in Events</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/kick-off-meeting-for-the-politics-of-data-project">Kick Off Meeting for the Politics of Data Project</a> (Organized by Tactical Tech; Phnom Penh; December 7-8, 2015). Amber Sinha participated in the event.</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/unbundling-issues-of-privacy-data-security-identity-matrics-for-financial-inclusion">Unbundling Issues of Privacy, Data Security, Identity Matrics, for Financial Inclusion </a> (Organized by Indicus Foundation and MicroSave; December 10, 2015; Metropolitan Hotel and Spa, New Delhi). Sunil Abraham was a speaker.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">►Miscellaneous</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Blog Entry</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/smart-cities-in-india-an-overview">Smart Cities in India: An Overview</a> (Vanya Rakesh; December 21, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<p><br /><b>Participation in Event</b></p>
<ul>
<li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/elite-capture-of-governance-in-bangalore">Elite Capture of Governance</a> (Organized by Forum for Urban Governance and Commons; December 16, 2015; Bangalore). Vanya Rakesh participated in the event.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>--------------------------------<br /><a href="http://cis-india.org/telecom">Telecom</a><br />--------------------------------</b><br />CIS is involved in promoting access and accessibility to telecommunications services and resources and has provided inputs to ongoing policy discussions and consultation papers published by TRAI. It has prepared reports on unlicensed spectrum and accessibility of mobile phones for persons with disabilities and also works with the USOF to include funding projects for persons with disabilities in its mandate:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Articles</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/the-free-basics-debate-trai-has-a-point-in-imposing-temporary-ban-on-net-neutrality">The Free Basics debate: Trai has a point in imposing temporary ban on net neutrality </a> (Sunil Abraham; FirstPost; December 24, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/millions-of-indians-slam-facebooks-2018free-basics2019-app">Millions of Indians Slam Facebook's 'Free Basics' App </a> (Subhashish Panigrahi; December 29, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>--------------------------------<br /><a href="http://cis-india.org/raw">Researchers at Work</a><br />--------------------------------</b><br />The Researchers at Work (RAW) programme is an interdisciplinary research initiative driven by contemporary concerns to understand the reconfigurations of social practices and structures through the Internet and digital media technologies, and vice versa. It is interested in producing local and contextual accounts of interactions, negotiations, and resolutions between the Internet, and socio-material and geo-political processes:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Upcoming Events</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/ai-hype-cycles-and-artistic-subversions">A.I. Hype Cycles and Artistic Subversions</a> (CIS, Bangalore; January 22, 2016). Gene Kogan will give a talk.</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/irc16-call">First Edition of Internet Researchers' Conference</a> (IRC) 2016 - Studying Internet in India: Call for Sessions (Organized by CIS; New Delhi; February 25 - 27, 2016).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Blog Entries</b></p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/raw-lecture-01-nishant-shah-video">RAW Lecture #01: Nishant Shah on 'Stories and Histories of Internet in India' - Video </a> (P.P. Sneha; December 1, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/fov-podcast-data-people-and-smart-cities">FOV Podcast - Data, People, and Smart Cities</a> (Sumandro Chattapadhyay; December 2, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/reading-from-a-distance-data-as-text">Reading from a Distance - Data as Text</a> (P.P. Sneha; December 7, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/the-infrastructure-turn-in-the-humanities">The Infrastructure Turn in the Humanities</a> (P.P. Sneha; December 7, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/raw/living-in-the-archival-moment">Living in the Archival Moment</a> (P.P. Sneha; December 14, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>---------------------------------<a href="http://cis-india.org/news"><br />News & Media Coverage<br /></a>---------------------------------</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS gave its inputs to the following media coverage:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/india2019s-net-neutrality-debate-is-unique-and-complex">India's net neutrality debate is unique and complex </a> (Pratap Vikram Singh; Governance Now; December 14, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/business-standard-anita-babu-december-23-2015-start-up-india-turns-the-heat-on-facebook-free-basics">Start-up India turns the heat on Facebook Free Basics </a> (Anita Babu; Business Standard; December 22, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/a-scam-masquerading-as-santa">A Scam Masquerading as Santa</a> (Apurva Venkat & Vandana Kamath; Bangalore Mirror; December 25, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/facebook-goes-out-all-guns-blazing-in-push-for-free-basics-net-neutrality-advocates-cry-foul">Facebook goes out all guns blazing in push for Free Basics, Net neutrality advocates cry foul </a> (IBN Live; December 29, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/ndtv-bhuma-shrivastava-december-30-2015-foreign-media-on-zukerberg-india-backlash">Foreign Media on Zuckerberg's India Backlash </a> (Bhuma Shrivastava; NDTV; December 30, 2015).</li>
<li><a href="http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/mark-zuckerberg2019s-india-backlash-imperils-vision-for-free-global-web">Mark Zuckerberg's India backlash imperils vision for free global web </a> (Bhuma Shrivastava; Livemint; December 30, 2015).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>---------------------------------<br /><a href="http://cis-india.org/">About CIS<br /></a>---------------------------------</b><br />The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) is a non-profit organisation that undertakes interdisciplinary research on internet and digital technologies from policy and academic perspectives. The areas of focus include digital accessibility for persons with diverse abilities, access to knowledge, intellectual property rights, openness (including open data, free and open source software, open standards, open access, open educational resources, and open video), internet governance, telecommunication reform, digital privacy, and cyber-security. The academic research at CIS seeks to understand the reconfigurations of social and cultural processes and structures as mediated through the internet and digital media technologies.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">► Offices</p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li>Bengaluru - No. 194, 2nd 'C' Cross, Domlur, 2nd Stage, Bengaluru, 560071. <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/place/Centre+for+Internet+and+Society/@12.9644512,77.6374907,19z/data=%214m6%211m3%213m2%211s0x3bae141bb474ca25:0xe88eda6c81771517%212sDomlur+Bus+Stop%213m1%211s0x0000000000000000:0x88cd9bce9a1aa4d8?hl=en"> </a> <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/place/Centre+for+Internet+and+Society/@12.9644512,77.6374907,19z/data=%214m6%211m3%213m2%211s0x3bae141bb474ca25:0xe88eda6c81771517%212sDomlur+Bus+Stop%213m1%211s0x0000000000000000:0x88cd9bce9a1aa4d8?hl=en"> Location on Google Map </a> .</li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li>Delhi - First floor, B 1/8, Hauz Khas, near G Block market, after Crunch, New Delhi, 110016.<a href="http://j.mp/cis-delhi"> </a> <a href="http://j.mp/cis-delhi">Location on Google Map</a>.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">► Follow Us</p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li>Twitter:<a href="http://twitter.com/cis_india"> http://twitter.com/cis_india</a></li>
<li>Twitter - Access to Knowledge:<a href="https://twitter.com/CISA2K"> https://twitter.com/CISA2K</a></li>
<li>Facebook - Access to Knowledge:<a href="https://www.facebook.com/cisa2k"> https://www.facebook.com/cisa2k</a></li>
<li>E-Mail - Access to Knowledge: <a href="mailto:a2k@cis-india.org">a2k@cis-india.org</a></li>
<li>E-Mail - Researchers at Work: <a href="mailto:raw@cis-india.org">raw@cis-india.org</a></li>
<li>List - Researchers at Work: <a href="https://lists.ghserv.net/mailman/listinfo/researchers">https://lists.ghserv.net/mailman/listinfo/researchers</a></li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">► Support Us</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Please help us defend consumer / citizen rights on the Internet! Write a cheque in favour of 'The Centre for Internet and Society' and mail it to us at No. 194, 2nd 'C' Cross, Domlur, 2nd Stage, Bengaluru, 560 071.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">► Request for Collaboration</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">We invite researchers, practitioners, artists, and theoreticians, both organisationally and as individuals, to engage with us on topics related internet and society, and improve our collective understanding of this field. To discuss such possibilities, please write to Sunil Abraham, Executive Director, at sunil@cis-india.org (for policy research), or Sumandro Chattapadhyay, Research Director, at sumandro@cis-india.org (for academic research), with an indication of the form and the content of the collaboration you might be interested in. To discuss collaborations on Indic language Wikipedia projects, write to Tanveer Hasan, Programme Officer, at <a href="mailto:tanveer@cis-india.org">tanveer@cis-india.org</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS is grateful to its primary donor the Kusuma Trust founded by Anurag Dikshit and Soma Pujari, philanthropists of Indian origin for its core funding and support for most of its projects. CIS is also grateful to its other donors, Wikimedia Foundation, Ford Foundation, Privacy International, UK, Hans Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, and IDRC for funding its various projects.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/december-2015-bulletin'>https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/december-2015-bulletin</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaAccess to KnowledgeTelecomAccessibilityInternet GovernanceResearchers at Work2016-01-13T14:07:01ZPageCODE Session
https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/code-session
<b>CODE Project is an IDRC funded project, and CIS is a partner institution, along with PIJIP at American University Washington College of Law, USA, Karisma Foundation, Colombia, Derechos Digitale, Chile, American Assembly, Columbia University, USA and FGV, Rio.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">At this session held in New Delhi on December 17, 2015, CIS presented some preliminary research and sought input on methodology as well as content. The project broadly studies law and policy environment that facilitates/hinders content creation online in Brazil, US, India, Colombia and Chile. A second part of the project, led by PIJIP is developing a copyright index, to chart copyright law developments in many countries around the world. Nehaa Chaudhari and Anubha Sinha participated in the open session.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/code-session'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/code-session</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaCopyrightAccess to Knowledge2016-01-13T13:39:43ZNews ItemIndic Language Wikipedias – Statistical Report: January – June 2012
https://cis-india.org/openness/indic-language-wikipedias-statistical-report-jan-june-2012
<b>The following is a compilation of the statistical update of the Indic language Wikipedias from January to June 2012. The author provides perspectives on the health of various Indic language communities as well as the state of various Indic language Wikipedias during the period.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The period of analysis is editor contributions between January 1, 2012 and June 30, 2012. (Read <a href="http://shijualex.wordpress.com/2012/02/16/indic-language-wikipedias-statistical-report-2011/" target="_blank">last year’s report here</a>). The data for this report and analysis are based on the statistical data published at <a class="external-link" href="http://stats.wikimedia.org">http://stats.wikimedia.org</a>. Thanks to Erik Zachte for compiling all this information.</p>
<p>Some of the important points from this report are:</p>
<ul>
<li>As always Indic wikipedia communities that are focused on community building had done well. Progress is slow but the results are steady and sustainable.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">The communities that have made substantial progress in community building are Urdu, Oriya, Assamese, and Malayalam. (among this, for Urdu Wikipedia most of the activity is from Pakistan). The most recent entry to this club is Punjabi which will show up in the statistics of next few months.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Providing adequate support for newbies is very much required after each outreach. But many communities are failing here. This is affecting the conversion rate even though many outreach activities are happening across the country,</li>
<li>As seen in the past the readership of Indic language wikipedias is still growing up.</li>
</ul>
<p>This report is presented in the following sequence.</p>
<ol>
<li>Community</li>
<li>Content</li>
<li>Readership</li>
</ol>
<h2>Community</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">As community is the backbone of every Indic language Wikipedia, it is important that the respective language wiki communities give adequate importance to community building. Many language communities are still not understanding the importance of building the community. To achieve the goal of building free knowledge database in the respective language we need participation from maximum number of speakers of the respective language. The following table gives information on two important parameters about the community in the respective language Wikipedia:</p>
<ul>
<li>Number of users who had 100 or more edits in a month (high active Wikipedians)</li>
<li>Number of users who had at least 5 or more edits a month (active Wikipedians)</li>
</ul>
<p><img class="wp-image-337 size-full" height="518" src="http://shijualex.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/users.png?w=640&h=518" title="2012 Jan-June user growth" width="640" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center; "><span class="visualHighlight">User growth in Indic language Wikipedias during 2012 January-June</span></p>
<p>Some of the important information that we can make out from this table are:</p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">The number of high active editors (editors with more than 100 edits per month) are the backbone of each language wikipedia. Apart from doing normal article editing they are the users maintaining the wiki. Tamil and Malayalam continue to be on the top spot with almost 24 active users . Marathi, Gujarati, Oriya, Punjabi, and Urdu also showed growth in the number of high active users.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Assamese Wikipedia is showing a reduction in the number of high active users even though its number of active users increased. This means that Assamese Wikipedia requires some more current active users to take up the role of wiki adminship and similar leadership roles.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">The number of active users (editors with more than 5 edits per month) give an overview of the overall activity in wikipedia. Here also Malayalam and Tamil continue to be on the top. Some of the languages that showed notable growth in the number of active users are Urdu, Oriya, and Assamese. As we know there are lot of community building activities happening in both Oriya and Assamese. Along with community building activities both the communities are making sure they are providing sufficient support to newbies using various options. And there efforts are showing up in the form of community strength.</li>
<li>The number of active members in Odia has increased to 25 which means community has grown 3 times over the past 6 months.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">The number of wiki editors per million for most Indic languages is still below 1. This shows that awareness about Indic language wiki projects is still an issue for most Indic Wikipedias. From this statistics (<a href="http://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/Sitemap.htm" target="_blank">http://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/Sitemap.htm</a>), we can see that for Sanskrit the number of editors per million speakers has become <b>280</b> which is one of the highest in the world. No other Indic language Wikipedia is near Sanskrit in this parameter. Malayalam comes second with 3 editors per million and Assamese and Bishnupriya Manipuri comes third with 2 editors per million. Tamil is in the fourth place with 1 editor. For all other Indic languages the number of editors per million population is below 1. This shows that still the penetration of respective language Wikipedia among the speakers of a language is very low. We need more outreach programs to reach the speakers of the respective language.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Content</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The number of articles is an important parameter which has misguided some wiki communities. However, it is a very important parameter if communities are increasing the number of articles in a way helpful to the readers of the wiki.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><img class="wp-image-341 size-full" src="http://shijualex.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/articles.png?w=640" title="Article growth during 2012 January - June" /></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Hindi continues to be on the top spot with 1,02,902. During the past 6 months almost 2000 articles got added to Hindi Wikipedia.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Telugu Wikipedia crossed the 50,000 article milestone is one of the major accomplishments during this period. I remember reading the news about Telugu Wikipedia crossing the <a href="http://crossroads.veeven.com/2007/06/26/telugu-wikipedia-reaches-30000-articles/" target="_blank">30,000 article milestone in June 2007 </a>which shows that it took almost 5 years to reach 50,000 article milestone. As pointed out by <a href="http://crossroads.veeven.com/2012/03/15/telugu-wikipedia-50000-articles/" target="_blank">User:Veeven in his blog post</a> (about Telugu Wikipedia crossing the 50,000 articles), Telugu Wikipedia needs more support from Telugu speaking population to build the free knowledge project in Telugu. The current number of active users in Telugu Wikipedia is not showing justice to the huge speaker base (more than 8 crores) of Telugu.</li>
<li>Another major milestone was Assamese Wikipedia crossing the 1,000 article milestone.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Tamil and Malayalam are the two language wikipedias that added most number of articles during this time period. Both the language wikipedias added close to 3000 articles.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Sindhi, Newari (Nepal Bhasha) and Bishnupriya language wikipedias showed reduction in the number of articles. There are 2 reasons for this:</li>
</ul>
<ol>
<li>There is no active community to add new articles (see the first table for the number of active users) </li>
<li>Spam/vandalism pages were deleted by stewards/global sysops.</li>
</ol>
<h2>Readers (Pageview)</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Number of people visiting the website continue to increase for all Indic language wikipedias and the total visits for all Indic language wikipedias combined is close to 4 crore now.<br /><br />Please note that the information available in the below table is the total visits (page views) for a language wikipedia for a month from all the platforms combined. It includes visits by readers and editors. This is NOT the list of <b>Number of Unique Visitors</b> to the website.</p>
<p>(The number of readers shown in the below table is in lakhs)</p>
<p><img alt="Growth of Readers during January 2012 - June 2012" class="wp-image-344 size-full aligncenter" src="http://shijualex.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/readers.png?w=640" title="Growth of Readers during January 2012 - June 2012" /></p>
<p>(The <b>Number of Readers</b> shown in the above table is in lakhs)</p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">For most of the Indic languages readership has gone up. For Assamese and Odia it almost doubled.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Among big languages unlike the number of active users when it comes to readers most Indic languages are doing justice to its speaking population volume. So even though many of our speakers are not editing the respective language wikipedia they are reading it. Bengali and Telugu are two languages that behaves different here which shows that awareness is very low for both the languages.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">As the Indic language support in smart phones and different OSs is in better position now, I am sure the readership is going to increase further in future.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Still a major percentage of our speakers (I mean speakers who has access to internet) doesn’t know that there is a Wikipedia exists in their own mother language and they not using it is a big issue. If our reader base is not increasing it will affect the community growth also. Hope things will improve as at least few language communities are involved in various awareness and outreach programs.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: left; "><i>Originally posted at</i> <a class="external-link" href="http://shijualex.wordpress.com/2012/09/24/indic-language-wikipedias-statistical-report-2012-january-2012-june/">http://shijualex.wordpress.com/2012/09/24/indic-language-wikipedias-statistical-report-2012-january-2012-june/</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/openness/indic-language-wikipedias-statistical-report-jan-june-2012'>https://cis-india.org/openness/indic-language-wikipedias-statistical-report-jan-june-2012</a>
</p>
No publisherShiju AlexOpennessAccess to KnowledgeWikimedia2012-09-28T15:41:31ZBlog EntryNational IPR Policy Series : Who is a 'public authority' under the RTI Act?
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/national-ipr-policy-series-who-is-a-public-authority-under-rti-act
<b>In this blog post, CIS intern Devrupa Rakshit examines case law with respect to the understanding of a 'public authority' under the Right to Information ("RTI") Act, 2005.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In earlier blog posts, India’s National IPR Policy has been discussed at length. In February 2015, <a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/rti-requests-dipp-details-on-constitution-and-working-of-ipr-think-tank">three RTI applications</a> were made by the Centre for Internet and Society to the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (<i>hereinafter</i>, the “DIPP”). The response of the DIPP to these requests could be described as vague, at best. A <a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/national-ipr-policy-series-rti-requests-by-cis-to-dipp-dipp-responses">detailed blog post by Nehaa Chaudhari</a> discusses the questions, the responses and the other nuances of this endeavour at length.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Having failed repeatedly in our attempts to retrieve information pertaining to the IPR Think Tank that was, essentially, in charge of formulating the National IPR Policy, we put forth an RTI request to the IPR Think Tank earlier this month. The response is awaited, at the moment. In the meantime, we have undertaken the task of finding out whether the IPR Think Tank can indeed be classified as a “public authority” under the <i>Right to Information Act</i>, (<i>hereinafter, </i>the<i> </i>“<i>RTI Act</i>”, or simply the “<i>Act</i>”) because if it can, then it must have a Public Information Officer as per <i>Section 5</i> of the <i>Act</i>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The <i>RTI Act </i>defines “public authorities” in <i>Section 2(h)</i> –</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><i>A “public authority” means any authority or body or institution of self- government established or constituted – </i></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><i>(a) </i><i>by or under the Constitution;</i></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><i>(b) </i><i>by any other law made by Parliament;</i></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><i>(c) </i><i>by any other law made by State Legislature;</i></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><i>(d) </i><i>by notification issued or order made by the appropriate Government, and includes any –</i></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><i>(i) </i><i>body owned, controlled or substantially financed;</i></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><i>(ii) </i><i>non-Government organization substantially financed, directly or indirectly by funds provided by the appropriate Government.</i></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>A. Who is a "Public Authority"?</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In 2011, the Punjab-Haryana High Court<a href="#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1">[1]</a> while deciding on 24 civil writ petitions against the Central/State Information Commissioners had held that if any person, or body, satisfies the following conditions then it would "squarely fall within the ambit and scope of definition of 'public authorities'" and would be "legally required to impart the indicated information as envisaged under the RTI Act" -</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(i) the institution cannot come into existence and function unless registered and regulated by the provisions of a legislation; or</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(ii) the State Government has some degree of control over it through the medium of <i>Acts</i>/<i>Rules</i>; or</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(iii) it is substantially financed by means of funds provided directly, or indirectly, by the appropriate Government; or</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(iv) the mandate and command of the provisions of the <i>RTI Act </i>along with its Preamble, aims, objects and regime extends to their public dealing; or</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">(v) the larger public interest and totality of the other facts and circumstances emanating from the records suggest that such information may be disclosed.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Court was further inclined to believe that arguments to the contrary would "nullify the aims and objects of the <i>RTI Act</i>, perpetuating and inculcating the injustice to the larger public interest in general."</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Central Information Commission (<i>hereinafter</i>, the "CIC") has also held<a href="#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2">[2]</a> that pension trusts are "public authorities" under the <i>RTI Act</i>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The CIC also held<a href="#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3">[3]</a> that the LIC Housing Finance Limited (<i>hereinafter</i>, the "LICHFL") and LIC Mutual Fund Asset Management Co. Ltd. would qualify as "public authorities" under the <i>RTI Act</i>. It was held that LIC is a body established, constituted, owned and controlled by Central Government. Further, LIC is a public authority having been constituted by an Act of Parliament. And, since the Chairman and Managing Director for both LIC and LICHFL is the same, and since LIC has 40.497% of the shares of LICHFL, LICHFL would be regarded as a "public authority" for the purposes of the <i>RTI Act</i>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In a verdict that has remained prominent for over half-a-decade now, the CIC had alluded to the judgment of the Madras High Court in <i>Tamil Nadu Newsprint & Papers Ltd </i>v<i>. State Information Commission</i>. In this case, the court had observed that since the mere requirement of the <i>RTI Act</i> for an institution to be deemed a "public authority" is that the Government must substantially finance it, and exercise control over its affairs, it is not necessary that the Government must be the <i>majority</i> shareholder in that institution. The Court had further gone ahead to make an observation that whether or not the government exercises such control is immaterial. Having relied heavily upon this judgment by the Madras High Court, the CIC had further stated that the practice of funding and general control over the affairs and functions of the LIC Mutual Fund by the Central Government is nothing but a manner of indirect funding, and hence LIC Mutual Fund would qualify as a "public authority" under the <i>RTI Act</i>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In the same case, it was held that the GIC Housing Finance Limited is also a "public authority" for the purposes of the <i>RTI Act</i> since "the shareholding of six Public Authorities in GIC Housing Finance is 47.68% and coupled with the control they exercise over the GIC Housing Finance, it is sufficient to bring them within the ambit of the definition of 'Public Authority' as defined in <i>Section 2(h)</i> of the <i>Right to Information Act, 2005</i>."</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Further, the Indian Olympic Association (<i>hereinafter</i>, the "IOA") was held<a href="#_ftn4" name="_ftnref4">[4]</a> to be a "public authority" under the <i>RTI Act</i> on account of substantial funding by the Government not only for the discharge of functions of the IOA, but also for the construction of its building. In fact, the level of funding by the Government, here, is such that without it, the IOA is unlikely to be able to discharge its functions under the Olympic Charter itself.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In another judgment<a href="#_ftn5" name="_ftnref5">[5]</a>, where it was contended that the body, in question, was a non-governmental organisation, and was not funded by the Government, the CIC held that the impugned body would be a "public authority" as it had been substantially financed by the funds provided by the Government.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In a judgment<a href="#_ftn6" name="_ftnref6">[6]</a> by the Madras High Court, even an aided private school was held to fall under the ambit of the <i>RTI Act</i> as its entire teaching staff received 100% of their salary from the aid received from the government. The same line of reasoning was resonated in a judgment by the Allahabad High Court in the following year.<a href="#_ftn7" name="_ftnref7">[7]</a> Yet another private recognised school was held<a href="#_ftn8" name="_ftnref8">[8]</a> by the CIC to be a "public authority" under the <i>RTI Act</i> because it was substantially funded by the appropriate Government, and was under its control.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Delhi High Court held<a href="#_ftn9" name="_ftnref9">[9]</a> the Krishak Bharti Co-operative Ltd. (<i>hereinafter</i>, the "KRIBHCO") - a society registered under the <i>Multi-State Co- operative Societies Act, 2002</i> (<i>hereinafter</i>, the "<i>MSCS Act</i>" - to be a "public authority" for the purpose of the <i>RTI Act</i> because certain devices laid down in the <i>MSCS Act</i> itself makes KRIBHCO amenable to the control of the Government. On the same grounds, the National Cooperative Consumer Federation of India Ltd. (and the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation of India Ltd. (<i>hereinafter</i>, the "NAFED") - two other societies registered under the <i>MSCS Act</i> - are "public authorities".</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Furthermore, the NAFED is also "a nodal agency of the Government of India for the purchase of agricultural and non- agricultural commodities under Market Intervention Scheme and the losses incurred in the implementation of the schemes by NAFED are shared by the Government of India and the State Government concerned in the ratio of 50:50."</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Continuing its trend of according a liberal approach to "public authorities" under the <i>RTI Act</i>, the Madras High Court stated in the <i>New Tirupur Area Development </i>case<a href="#_ftn10" name="_ftnref10">[10]</a><i> </i>that while <i>Section 2(h)(d)(i)</i> qualifies a "<i>body owned</i>" or a "<i>body controlled</i>", nowhere does it state that the body must be <i>wholly</i> owned, or <i>wholly</i> controlled, by the State. And, as the court observed, even the term "<i>substantially financed</i>" has not been defined though it has been qualified by the terms " <i>directly or indirectly</i>". <i>Section 2(h)(d)(ii)</i> further ropes in non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that are substantially financed. This reflects the intent and purpose of the legislators. In any case, the object of the <i>Act</i> to is to provide the citizens with a right to information from public authorities, and hence, as the Division Bench of the court had previously opined in the <i>Tamil Nadu Road Development Corporation Ltd.'s </i>case<a href="#_ftn11" name="_ftnref11">[11]</a>, the impugned section must receive a liberal interpretation.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Further ahead in this judgment<a href="#_ftn12" name="_ftnref12">[12]</a>, the court made an observation saying that if the State Government, instead of undertaking a work that is essentially its own duty, substantially funds an agency to do it, then such work can hardly be deemed as a private activity. It evolves "very much (into) a public activity over which public interest can generate."</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In the same case<a href="#_ftn13" name="_ftnref13">[13]</a>, it was also observed that under the Act, the quantum of the finance required for a body to qualify as "substantially financed" is not spelt out. On this point, the High Court also relied on a precedent <a href="#_ftn14" name="_ftnref14">[14]</a> (the <i>Tamil Nadu Road Development</i> case decided by Justice A.K. Ganguly) where the court had refused to accept the argument of the petitioner, which stated that the financial support by the government was meagre at best.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b> B. Which bodies are exempted from the Ambit of "Public Authorities"? </b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Kerala High Court, in a 2011 judgment<a href="#_ftn15" name="_ftnref15">[15]</a>, exempted the offices and officers of public religious institutions and endowments to which the <i>Madras Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Act, 1951</i> applies from the definition of "public authorities" under the <i>RTI Act</i>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In a subsequent case<a href="#_ftn16" name="_ftnref16">[16]</a>, the CIC said that despite the fact that 46% of the equity capital of the National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange Ltd. was held by the PSUs (which are, of course, public authorities), the National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange Ltd. cannot, in itself, be regarded as a "public authority" as there is no direct or indirect funding by an appropriate Government.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Three Karnataka High Court judgments in 2009 [(a) dealing with the <i>Basava Samithi</i><a href="#_ftn17" name="_ftnref17">[17]</a> - an organisation that promotes the <i>Basava</i> Philosophy of Life and is registered under the <i>Karnataka Societies Registration Act, 1961</i>; (b) dealing with a co-operative housing society<a href="#_ftn18" name="_ftnref18">[18]</a> in Malleswaram, Bangalore; (c) dealing with a Bank <a href="#_ftn19" name="_ftnref19">[19]</a>] held three different bodies as not the creation of any law made by the Legislature, or not as bodies owned or controlled or substantially financed by the Government, and hence, exempt from the ambit of a "public authority" under the <i>RTI Act</i>. These judgments were, however, criticised in the Punjab and Haryana High Court<a href="#_ftn20" name="_ftnref20">[20]</a> wherein it said that in the three 2009-judgments, the Karnataka High Court had overlooked the basic aims and objectives of larger public interest enshrined in the Preamble of the <i>RTI Act</i>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>C. Conclusion</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The easiest way to establish that the IPR Think Tank would qualify as a "public authority" under the RTI Act would be to show that it is a body owned, controlled or substantially funded directly or indirectly by the Government, or that it is created either by any other law made by the Parliament or State Legislature, or under the <i>Constitution</i> itself.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Moreover, it appears from <i>The Hindu Urban Cooperative Bank Limited </i>v. <i>The State Information Commission</i><a href="#_ftn21" name="_ftnref21">[21]</a> that when discharging public functions, even though a private entity does not become a State <i>per se</i>, considering the public interest involved, it must be deemed to be a "public authority" in a bid to avoid diluting the aims and objectives of the <i>RTI Act</i>. Now, since the drafting of the National IPR Policy can, in all likelihood, be described as the exercise of a public function, the IPR Think Tank should then qualify as a "public authority" under the <i>Act</i>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In addition, the underlying principle used in <i>Indubala Agarwal</i> v. <i>National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange Ltd.</i> <a href="#_ftn22" name="_ftnref22">[22]</a> was that while the public bodies engaging in commercial or business activities - often, even profitable - that are created by any government in exercise of its sovereign functions would qualify as "public authorities" as per <i>Section 2(h)</i> of the <i>Act</i>, the set of commercial bodies further created by these public bodies as part of their business ventures would not qualify as "public authorities" as per <i>Section 2(h)</i>. The simple reason behind this discrimination of sorts is that the latter set of bodies lacks any direct, or indirect, involvement of an appropriate government. However, it is unlikely that this <i>rationale</i> could be used to keep the IPR Think Tank outside the domain of "public authorities" under the <i>Act</i> since it would hardly qualify as a commercial body. Furthermore, it was not created by the DIPP merely in a bid to expand its business interests, but to formulate a National IPR Policy that is quite a far cry from being classified as a commercial activity.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">On a different but related note, in the well-known case of <i>Ajay Hasia</i> v. <i>Khalid Mujib Sehravardi</i> <a href="#_ftn23" name="_ftnref23">[23]</a>, the test laid down for a "public body" was whether a said person, or body, is an instrumentality or agency of the State, and not as to how it was brought into existence, <i>i.e.</i>, the idea is to find out <span>why</span> it was created, and not <span>how</span>. No doubt, the context of the judgment was <i>Article 226</i> of the <i>Constitution of India</i>, and not the <i>RTI Act</i>. Nonetheless, considering that there is no apparent reason to distinguish between public bodies under <i>Article 226</i> and under the <i>RTI Act</i>, what if this test were to be applied to the issue at hand? Since the IPR Think Tank has been created for the purpose of drawing up the National IPR Policy which obviously affects the public, it may not be entirely wrong to state, then, that it would fall within the ambit of "public authorities" the <i>RTI Act</i> .</p>
<div style="text-align: justify; ">
<hr align="left" size="1" width="100%" />
<div id="ftn1">
<p><a href="#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1">[1]</a> <i>The Hindu Urban Cooperative Bank Limited and Ors</i> . v. <i>The State Information Commission and Ors.</i> [2011] (Pun & Har HC) <br /> available at - <<a href="http://indiankanoon.org/doc/155741837/">http://indiankanoon.org/doc/155741837/</a>></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn2">
<p><a href="#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2">[2]</a> <i>Mr. SK Choudhary</i> v. <i>Delhi Transco Limited</i> [2010] (CIC) available at - < <a href="http://www.rti.india.gov.in/cic_decisions/SG-26022010-12.pdf">http://www.rti.india.gov.in/cic_decisions/SG-26022010-12.pdf</a>></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn3">
<p><a href="#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3">[3]</a> <i>Shri Nisar Ahmed Shaikh and Ors.</i> v. <i>LIC Housing Finance Limited and Ors.</i> [2009] (CIC) available at - < <a href="http://www.rti.india.gov.in/cic_decisions/FB-28102009-01.pdf">http://www.rti.india.gov.in/cic_decisions/FB-28102009-01.pdf</a>></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn4">
<p><a href="#_ftnref4" name="_ftn4">[4]</a> <i>Veeresh Malik</i> v. <i>Indian Olympic Association</i> [2006] (CIC) available at - <a href="http://www.rti.india.gov.in/cic_decisions/Decision_28112006_3.pdf">http://www.rti.india.gov.in/cic_decisions/Decision_28112006_3.pdf</a> ></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn5">
<p><a href="#_ftnref5" name="_ftn5">[5]</a> <i>Mrs Navneet Kaur</i> v. <i>Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council</i> [2006] (CIC) available at - < <a href="http://cic.gov.in/CIC-Orders/CIC_Order_Dtd_22032006.pdf">http://cic.gov.in/CIC-Orders/CIC_Order_Dtd_22032006.pdf</a>></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn6">
<p><a href="#_ftnref6" name="_ftn6">[6]</a> <i>Diamond Jubilee Higher Secondary School</i> v. <i>Union of India</i> [2007] (Mad HC) available at - <<a href="http://indiankanoon.org/doc/563155/">http://indiankanoon.org/doc/563155/</a> ></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn7">
<p><a href="#_ftnref7" name="_ftn7">[7]</a> <i>Dhara Singh Girls High School</i> v. <i>State of Uttar Pradesh</i> [2008] AIR (All HC) available at - < <a href="http://indiankanoon.org/doc/1378411/">http://indiankanoon.org/doc/1378411/</a>></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn8">
<p><a href="#_ftnref8" name="_ftn8">[8]</a> <i>Mr. Tilak Raj Tanwar</i> v. <i>The PIO, Deputy Director of Education</i> [2012] (CIC) available at - < <a href="http://rti.india.gov.in/cic_decisions/CIC_AD_A_2011_001699_M_73865.pdf"> http://rti.india.gov.in/cic_decisions/CIC_AD_A_2011_001699_M_73865.pdf </a> ></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn9">
<p><a href="#_ftnref9" name="_ftn9">[9]</a> <i>Krishak Bharti Cooperative Ltd.</i> v. <i>Ramesh Chander Bawa</i> [2010] (Del HC) available at - < <a href="http://indiankanoon.org/doc/159896809/">http://indiankanoon.org/doc/159896809/</a>></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn10">
<p><a href="#_ftnref10" name="_ftn10">[10]</a> <i>New Tirupur Area Development </i> v.<i> State of Tamil Nadu</i> [2010] (Mad HC) available at - < <a href="http://judis.nic.in/judis_chennai/qrydisp.aspx?filename=25472">http://judis.nic.in/judis_chennai/qrydisp.aspx?filename=25472</a>></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn11">
<p><a href="#_ftnref11" name="_ftn11">[11]</a> <i>Tamil Nadu Road Development Company Limited</i> v. <i>Tamil Nadu Information Commission</i> [2008] 6 MLJ 737 (Mad HC) available at - < <a href="http://indiankanoon.org/doc/454066/">http://indiankanoon.org/doc/454066/</a>></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn12">
<p><a href="#_ftnref12" name="_ftn12">[12]</a> <i>ibid</i> .</p>
</div>
<div id="ftn13">
<p><a href="#_ftnref13" name="_ftn13">[13]</a> <i>See</i> n 12.</p>
</div>
<div id="ftn14">
<p><a href="#_ftnref14" name="_ftn14">[14]</a> <i>See</i> n 13.</p>
</div>
<div id="ftn15">
<p><a href="#_ftnref15" name="_ftn15">[15]</a> <i>AC Bhanunni Valluvanattukara</i> v. <i>The Commissioner, Malabar Devaswom Board</i> [2011] (Ker HC) available at - < <a href="http://judis.nic.in/judis_kerala/qrydisp.aspx?filename=239775">http://judis.nic.in/judis_kerala/qrydisp.aspx?filename=239775</a>></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn16">
<p><a href="#_ftnref16" name="_ftn16">[16]</a> <i>Indubala Agarwal</i> v. <i>National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange Ltd.</i> [2010] (CIC) available at - <Part 1: <a href="http://www.rti.india.gov.in/cic_decisions/LS-01012010-08.pdf">http://www.rti.india.gov.in/cic_decisions/LS-01012010-08.pdf</a>> and <Part 2 - <a href="http://www.rti.india.gov.in/cic_decisions/LS-08022010-06.pdf">http://www.rti.india.gov.in/cic_decisions/LS-08022010-06.pdf</a>>.</p>
</div>
<div id="ftn17">
<p><a href="#_ftnref17" name="_ftn17">[17]</a> <i>SS Angadi </i> v. <i>State Chief Information Commissioner </i>[2009] 5 RCR (Civil) 312 (Kar HC) available at - < <a href="http://indiankanoon.org/doc/1198428/">http://indiankanoon.org/doc/1198428/</a>></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn18">
<p><a href="#_ftnref18" name="_ftn18">[18]</a> <i>Dattaprasad Co-operative Housing Society Ltd. </i> v. <i>Karnataka State Chief Information Commissioner</i> [2009] 5 RCR (Civil) 833 (Kar HC) available at - < <a href="http://www.the-laws.com/Encyclopedia/Browse/Case?CaseId=018002943000"> http://www.the-laws.com/Encyclopedia/Browse/Case?CaseId=018002943000 </a> ></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn19">
<p><a href="#_ftnref19" name="_ftn19">[19]</a> <i>Bidar District Central Co-operative Bank Ltd.</i> v. <i>Karnataka Information Commission, Bangalore</i> [2009] 5 RCR (Civil) 394 (Kar HC) available at - < <a href="http://www.the-laws.com/Encyclopedia/Browse/Case?CaseId=018002573000"> http://www.the-laws.com/Encyclopedia/Browse/Case?CaseId=018002573000 </a> ></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn20">
<p><a href="#_ftnref20" name="_ftn20">[20]</a> <i>See</i> n 1.</p>
</div>
<div id="ftn21">
<p><a href="#_ftnref21" name="_ftn21">[21]</a> <i>See</i> n 1.</p>
</div>
<div id="ftn22">
<p><a href="#_ftnref22" name="_ftn22">[22]</a> <i>See</i> n 16.</p>
</div>
<div id="ftn23">
<p><a href="#_ftnref23" name="_ftn23">[23]</a> <i>Ajay Hasia</i> v. <i>Khalid Mujib Sehravardi</i> [1981] 2 SCR 79 (SC) available at - < <a href="http://indiankanoon.org/doc/1186368/">http://indiankanoon.org/doc/1186368/</a>></p>
</div>
</div>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/national-ipr-policy-series-who-is-a-public-authority-under-rti-act'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/national-ipr-policy-series-who-is-a-public-authority-under-rti-act</a>
</p>
No publishernehaaIntellectual Property RightsAccess to Knowledge2015-05-21T17:03:30ZBlog EntryReport: Global Intellectual Property Convention 2015
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/report-global-intellectual-property-convention-2015
<b>The Global Intellectual Property Convention was held in January 2015 in Mumbai. Interns Anna Liz Thomas and Nayana Dasgupta assisted with the making of this report.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b><a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/global-intellectual-property-conference-2015.pdf">Conference Schedule [PDF]</a></b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b><a class="external-link" href="http://iprconference.com/admin/uploads/GIPC%202015%20-%20IPR%20Policy%20Recommendations.pdf">National IPR Policy Recommendations [PDF]</a></b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Harshvardhan Lale, Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC)</b></p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Digital piracy in India</h3>
<div style="text-align: justify; ">
<p><b>Special 301 Report:</b></p>
<p>India is second among 10 countries on the Priority Watch List of the United States Trade Representatives (USTR), according to the Special 301 Report published in May 2014. Once every two years, the US, through its trade representatives releases the Special 301 Report, which deals with piracy across the globe, especially in the places where US business interests lie. Though the police conduct at least 25 raids every week across India, it has made no difference to the rate of piracy in the country. When a couple of software publishers entered India, they were very confident that none of their products, in any shape and form, could be pirated in India. I took one of the heads of Compliance to the [pirated goods] market where we got a product worth Rs. 5 crores for Rs. 100.</p>
<p>The Special 301 Report also suggests that none of the previous governments or government bodies in India have taken any initiative whatsoever to ensure that even the products used in the government offices are not pirated. According to US government agencies (2013), there were serious difficulties in attaining constructive engagement on IPR issues with the UPA government.</p>
<p><b>Video piracy:</b></p>
<p>India is rated as one of the countries with the highest incidence of video piracy by MPDA, well above Bulgaria, Costa Rica, Greece, and Peru. We [supporters of stricter IP] are now trying to get the digital rights management provision in the [Indian] Copyright Law [redacted], but that is still in the future.</p>
<p><b>Broadcast piracy:</b></p>
<p>A few Indian television channels are facing this problem because of demand [to view their content] from Indians living abroad.</p>
<p><b>Online piracy: </b></p>
<p>The Internet has been an enabler for the movie and music industry. Many cinema and music publishers have their own channels, say, on YouTube. Although content cannot be directly downloaded from YouTube, "YouTube grabber" software enables piracy.</p>
<p>Surreptitious recording of public performances on mobile phones and recording of cinema screenings using camcorders are other instances of piracy. These recordings are later circulated on the Internet.</p>
<p><b>Software piracy: </b></p>
<p>Recently, one automobile manufacturer had to recall a set of its vehicles from the Indian market. Investigations revealed that one of the automobile components, which was procured from a supplier, was created using pirated software. There is a fair chance that a pirated product won't provide all the functionalities that you might otherwise get, or that some APIs (Application Programming Interface) may be missing, which may lead to erroneous or inaccurate design.</p>
<p>Counterfeiting, online piracy, end user piracy, client overuse, and hard disk loadings [sideloading] amount to most of the software piracy in India. One of the software companies for whom we [PWC] are doing an audit - it happens to be one of the leading information technology companies in India - we identified a gap of 20 million [US] dollars for one software publisher in their India operations. Whether this was deliberate or not can be debated, but it is a serious problem.</p>
<p>A survey on software piracy conducted across the globe by Business Software Alliance indicates that India has improved from bring ranked tenth to twelveth. Estimated use of unlicensed software stands at 43% globally; India is at 60% [as per the latest figures]. In 2010, India was at 64%, in 2011 at 63%. There is a recent case of a patent getting rejected because the organisation that had applied for it had used unlicensed software for designing the product. Another serious impact with regard to RnD and patents is on privacy. [Pirated software could contain] malware with the potential of stealing information].</p>
<p>Some of the major problems are that organisations are not aware of the implications of using pirated software and media, leading to potential non-compliances. [Owing to] lack of knowledge of licensing, the different software licenses, software publishers not using a standard format of licensing, the end consumer does not understand what licensing is. In the license terms, there is a "Right to Audit", which gives every software publisher the right to evaluate your organisation at any time.</p>
<p>Corporates are trying to align themselves with consultants like us [PWC] to support the industry in curbing piracy. The Make in India program has a dedicated section on intellectual property (IP). There is a special focus on intellectual property rights (IPR) for the manufacturing sector, which is directly affected by digitalisation. We hope that with the new government, some change will happen in the software piracy space.</p>
<p><b>Omesh Puri, Senior Associate, LexOrbis</b></p>
<p><b>Effective Copyright Enforcement in the Digital Era: Relevance of John Doe Orders</b></p>
<p><b>Copyright enforcement challenges in the digital world:</b></p>
<p>Rapid growth in digital technology presents enormous opportunities for copyright owners as it expands their customer base, reduces distribution costs, and makes territorial boundaries almost a nullity. The disadvantage is that, unless regulated properly, it exposes copyrighted work to threat of blatant infringement spread across different media including the Internet. The main problem before copyright owners is ever-growing online piracy. The Internet grants anonymity to copyright infringers. There can be a number of occasions where copyright owners are not able to ascertain the infringer's identity even after spending considerable time or money. In such cases, a John Doe order comes as an effective enforcement tool.</p>
<p>The name John Doe is used to identify unknown and nameless infringers or defendants who have allegedly committed some wrong, but whose identity is unknown to the plaintiff. To avoid delay and injustice, the court names the defendant John Doe, until such time as the defendant is identified. The orders passed by courts in such cases are known as John Doe orders, and is an internationally accepted practice to enforce IPR, especially with respect to copyright and trademark. This is prevalent in various jurisdictions including the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. This order has also been formalised in the statutory provision of these countries. It is an ex-parte interim injunction with the added benefit that the plaintiff is given the liberty to add to the array of parties who would be identified after the filing of the suit. These orders are an exception to the general rule which requires the defendant to be identified prior to the filing of the suit. The ex-parte interim injunction then applies even against the later defendants. It is also against the defendants whose identities are unknown during the filing of the suit. The orders enjoin unknown defendants from engaging in any infringing activity.</p>
<p><b>Why are John Doe orders so popular?</b></p>
<p>These orders allow for immediate action in case any instance of infringement comes to light. As the copyright owners only need to serve a copy of the order to the erring parties instead of filing of a new suit. By filing a single action, and after obtaining a single John Doe order, the plaintiff would be able to cover all alleged and even potential infringements and violators, which would ultimately save a lot of time and costs. The plaintiff would not be required to file separate court actions before different courts in India. Once they obtain this order, it will block all unknown defendants and infringers. It is also able to reduce online piracy by mandating that internet service providers block access to infringing websites.</p>
<p><b>Some of the important John Does copyright injunctions passed</b> <b>in India:</b></p>
<p>The first John Doe order was passed in the famous case of Ten Sports entitled Taj Television v. Rajan Mandal. The plaintiff, Taj Television, a Dubai-based company, owned and operated an exclusive sports channel by the name Ten Sports. They had acquired the exclusive rights to broadcast the 2002 FIFA World Cup. They entered into agreements with various cable operators for transmission of the channel. However, many unlicensed cable operators started displaying Ten Sports without any permission or authorisation from Taj Television, which then instituted a suit against named and unnamed cable operators. In 2002, the Delhi High Court passed a pathbreaking order which stopped the unauthorised broadcast of FIFA World Cup matches.</p>
<p>The Indian Court has specifically held that such orders may be enforced against persons whose identities are unknown at the time of instituting the suit.</p>
<p><b>Whose identities fall within the scope of action?</b></p>
<p>So long as the litigating finger is directed at an unknown person, the inability to identify him by name is a mere misnomer. The principle of litigating finger was affirmed in this case. After this there have been a series of John Doe orders. However it is only in recent times that the Indian Judiciary has started granting these orders on a regular basis, especially for blocking websites. In another case in 2014, Star India Pvt. Ltd. vs. Haneeth Ujwal, the plaintiff was one of the leading broadcasters in India. They had acquired the exclusive broadcasting rights, which includes television, mobile, Internet or on-demand rights with respect to the 2014 India vs. England Test Series. Star India filed the suit against websites, many of which were unidentifiable in nature or the owners could not be located. They were showing these cricket matches live without the permission of Star India. The websites' viewers could either view the ad-supported free version or the video-on-demand or pay-per-view subscription-enabled version. The availability of this content is supported by advertisements found on these websites.</p>
<p><b>How could the exclusive rights of the plaintiff be protected, and what can be the appropriate remedy?</b></p>
<p>Should the websites be blocked completely or only the specific URL providing access to the infringing content? The court held that both known and unknown defendants were liable for infringement as there was no remedy available to the plaintiff other than blocking the entire website. Blocking URLs was considered to be insufficient remedy by the court because, in its opinion, the website owners could easily change the specified URL by merely one character to circumvent the John Doe order passed by the Court.</p>
<p><b>Challenges: </b></p>
<p>While it has become routine to seek John Doe copyright injunctions before every big movie release or any major sporting event, many claim that they have largely remained unsuccessful in checking and controlling small street pirates. Lack of police cooperation may also render these orders unenforceable. There is another dispute going on whether these orders should be limited to entire websites or specific URLs. The Delhi HC has previously granted orders to extend the inclusion of these orders on the entire website. However, there is another opinion by Madras HC which said that these orders would be limited to specific URLs. In the absence of specific judicial guidelines, there is no clarity on the scope of these orders or under what circumstances these may be granted. There is a risk of misuse and improper implementation of these orders.</p>
<p><b><br /></b></p>
<p><b>James Martin, Director, Fieldfisher</b></p>
<p><b>Online Infringement In the European Union</b></p>
<p><b>(Recent Court Rulings in the European Union Regarding Online Copyright Infringement and Database Rights)</b></p>
<p><b>The Svensson case:</b></p>
<p>The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled that the owner of a website may use hyperlinks to redirect Internet users to protected works available on other websites without the authorisation of the copyright holder of the linked website, provided that the linked website is freely available, that is, it can be accessed by anyone on the Internet.</p>
<p>The Retriever Sverige website operated to provide clickable links to articles published by other websites on the internet. The claimants were journalists who wrote articles for the Goteborgs-Posten website, and those articles were being linked by the Retriever Sverige website. The claimants argued that the Retriever Sverige hyperlink constituted an infringement of the claimant's copyright by making a communication to the public without the author's permission and they alleged that this was contrary to Article 3 of the Information Society Services Directive, commonly known as the InfoSoc Directive, which is the European Directive that harmonises copyrights across the 28 member states of the EU within the Information Society. The case made its way to the Swedish Court of Appeal which stayed the proceedings pending references to four questions to the CJEU.</p>
<p>1. If anyone other than the holder of copyright in a certain work supplies a clickable link to the work on his website, does that constitute communication to the public within the meaning of Article 3(1) of the InfoSoc Directive?</p>
<p>2. Is the assessment under Q1 affected if the work which the link refers is on a website on the Internet, which can be accessed by anyone without restrictions or if access is restricted in some way?</p>
<p>3. When making the assessment under Q1, should any distinction be drawn between a case where the work, after the user has clicked on the link, is shown on another website and one where the work, after the user has clicked on the link, is shown in such a way as to give the impression that the content is appearing on the same website, in other words, framing the content.</p>
<p>4. Is is possible for a [an EU] Member State to give wider protection to the author's exclusive rights by enabling communication to the public to cover a greater range of acts than provided for in Art. 3(1) of the Info Soc Directive?</p>
<p>In answer to the first question, the Court of Justice determined that "communication to the public " requires both a "communication" and a "public". The hyperlinks were determined to be making available, and therefore, they were an act of communication. However, there is a sting in the tail, because the Court of Justice held that the public must be a new public, and the communication must be directed to a new public. A public that wasn't taken into account by the copyright holders when they first authorised their initial communication to the public. In the second stanza for Svensson, the public targeted by the journalists' original articles consisted of all potential visitors to the Goteborgs-Posten website, which was unrestricted. Therefore they could be freely used and read by any Internet user. Consequently the links provided by the Retriever Sverige website were not to a new public and there was no need to obtain the author's consent.</p>
<p>In response to the second question, the situation would be different if the link allowed users to bypass restrictions designed to limit access to the public such as a paywall as can be found on The Times London websites, the Wall Street Journal websites and many others. Such users were not taken into account by the original copyright holders when the initial communication was authorised. So those people would constitute a new public.</p>
<p>Regarding the third question, the framing, the Court of Justice unusually held that it was irrelevant. The Internet user who clicks on a hyperlink is given the impression that the link is appearing on the site that contains the link, in other words, framing somebody else's content that is already freely available on the internet on your own website is absolutely fine, and there are obviously issues that arise out of that concerning advertising revenue streams that some people have on their websites where they are effectively making money by putting content freely on the internet by having advertising revenue surrounding their content. But of course if somebody can freely embed that content on their website, those adverts aren't necessarily seen. But as far as the European Court of Justice is concerned in the context of copyright, this is perfectly acceptable, and this applies across all 28 EU Member States.</p>
<p>In answering the fourth question, the CJEU held that member states do not have the right to give wider protection to copyright holders by widening the concept of "communication to the public" from that which is given in the InfoSoc Directive, as this would otherwise give rise to legislative differences between member states contrary to the purposes of the directive.</p>
<p><b>Bestwater ruling:</b></p>
<p>The Bestwater case reconfirmed the liberal approach that the Court of Justice takes towards embedding copyright material on a third party website. The judgement has been stayed pending the outcome of the decision handed down in the Svensonn case. And the CJEU has ruled that unless an original publisher uses technical access restrictions, then embedded content does not reach a new public. The effect of this judgement, combined with the Svensonn judgement is likely to lead to more restrictive publishing practices within the EU. Copyright holders will seek to avoid free riders taking advantage of the loophole that the court seems to have legitimised. So to provide background,</p>
<p>The Bestwater case was referred to the Court of Justice by the German Federal Court of Justice. It deals with a promotional video about water pollution that was produced by Bestwater International, a company that makes water filters. The film was originally published by Bestwater on its own company website and later uploaded to YouTube, allegedly without the permission or knowledge of Bestwater. The defendants were competitors of Bestwater, and they embedded the video on their websites, with the frames pointing to the YouTube copy. Now Bestwater objected to this use and sought an injunction against the two representatives of the rival company from the German Court. Bestwater's position was that the video was protected by copyright and that the exclusive rights to use the film belonged to Bestwater. So the German court referred the case to the CJEU asking whether the embedding of content of a third-party website on one's own website constitutes a communication to the public within the meaning of Article 3(1) of the InfoSoc Directive.</p>
<p>After the Svensonn decision, the Court of Justice felt that it had already put an end to the debate regarding content on the Internet and it reverted to the German Court suggesting that the latter should withdraw its submission. In other words, saying that they did not want give an answer, saying that they had already answered it. The German Court insisted on a decision, one of the main reasons apparently being that in the Bestwater case, the YouTube video which the defendants were linking to and embedding on their website was itself a copyright violation. Nevertheless, in delivering its decision the CJEU followed the same rationale as in Svensonn and held that embedding content from another website does not amount to communication to the public if the uploader did not restrict access to the content and communicated it to the entire web community. There was no new public accessing the Bestwater video when it was embedded on the defendant's website, because when the video was uploaded on YouTube, whether lawfully or unlawfully, it was intended to be accessed by all who have access to the Internet. So this ruling somewhat cast doubt on the technical and economic understanding of modern media publication because the CJEU's position seems to be that the Internet is a medium rather than a mere technology. In other words, by analogy, a website does not compare to a particular magazine, newspaper, or a particular TV channel, but print media, TV in general, i.e, the relevant audience being all those who have access to magazines and newspapers rather than access to a particular newspaper, and all those who have access to TVs rather than a specific channel. So from a purely economic perspective these decisions raise concerns as they open up numerous possibilities to take advantage of copyright holders and content of other parties on the Internet. Based on these decisions, it's now possible to use written content, images or other videos that are hosted on another website for one's own website simply by embedding them. Apart from using somebody else's Internet bandwidth (which wasn't addressed by the CJEU at all), the CJEU in these copyright cases haven't taken account that the embedded content is actually taken out of its original context, and the advertisements displayed on the original website alongside the uploaded content may not appear on the embedded website, and the embedder may therefore spoil an important source of revenue for the copyright owner and use third-party copyright content for its own economic benefit. The most obvious response to these decisions will be that copyright owners will need to protect their content by implementing paywalls or other restrictive measures from the outset.</p>
<p>Another decision that the ECJ handed down involved the low-cost European Airline, RyanAir. This has been a long running dispute with various third parties, but one third party in particular, which accessed content on the RyanAir website to enable the sale of RyanAir flights and details about RyanAir time tables and schedules available on that third-party website, and interestingly, one thing that the Court of Justice raised in that decision is that it may be possible for owners of content to bind third parties in contract, but obviously you need to ensure that you are binding that third party in contract by accessing the website so that even if you cannot sue them for copyright infringement, you may be able to sue them for breach of contract for accessing your content and placing it on their website.</p>
<p><b>Database rights (AutoTrack v. GasPedaal)</b></p>
<p>The Court of Justice ruled in 2014 that the use of a meta-search engine can, in certain circumstances, constitute re-utilisation of the contents of the database in the meaning of Article 7(2)(b) of the Database Directive.</p>
<p>Database rights is an unusual concept, very newly come into the EU, and they provide protection above and beyond copyright protection. You don't necessarily need to have original content in a database, it's really protecting the investment an individual makes in actually producing the database, and that investment can be assessed on a qualitative or quantitative basis.</p>
<p>The Database Directive introduced the bespoke new form of legal protection. It is commonly referred to as the sui generis right . Article 7(1) in particular provides a "right for the maker of a database which shows that there has been qualitatively and/ or quantitatively a substantial investment in either obtaining, verification or presentation of the content to prevent extraction and/or re-utilisation of the whole or of a substantial part, evaluated quantitatively and/or qualitatively, of the contents of that database". Now for this purpose, Article 7(2)(b) provides that "re-utilisation means any form of making available to the public of all or a substantial part of the contents of a database by the distribution of copies, by renting, by online, or other forms of transmission". Article 7(5) provides that "the repeated and systematic extraction and/or re-utilisation of insubstantial parts of the contents of the database implying acts which conflict with a normal exploitation of that database or which unreasonably prejudice the legitimate interests of the maker of the database shall not be permitted."</p>
<p>The recitals to the Directive also back this up. So recital 42 of the Directive provides for "The right to prevent extraction and/or re-utilization related to acts by the user which go beyond his legitimate rights and thereby harm the investment". "The right to prohibit extraction and or re-utilization of all or a substantial part of the contents of a database relates not only to the manufacture of a parasitical competing product but also to any user who, through his acts, causes significant qualitative or quantitative detriment to the investment".</p>
<p>Turning to the facts of this case, Wegener operated a website called AutoTrack which carried car sale advertisements updated daily of to a 190,000 to 200,000 second hand cars of which around 40,000 were to be found on the AutoTrack website. Now Innoweb operated an online car advertisement website called GasPedaal. Rather than having its own database, it used a dedicated meta-search engine which then searched third party websites including AutoTrack's, using those websites to obtain results. So when a user typed in search terms on the GasPedaal website, the site's search engine would translate the relevant command into a language that could be understood by the AutoTrack web search engine. The AutoTrack search engine would then find any relevant advertisements and make them available on the GasPedaal search engine, which would then sort and collate those results from other dedicated search engines on other websites as well. The GasPedaal search engine would then note where more than one site produced the same advertisement and then made a single search result of those, presenting the user with links to the multiple sources. For each search performed, the GasPedaal search engine only returned results representing a small number of the advertisements on the AutoTrack site, but that is because it was only returning results that matched the relevant search terms given by the Internet user. Now Wegener successfully sued Innoweb for infringement of its database right. Innoweb appealed and the Hague Court of Appeal stayed the proceedings pending reference to the CJEU for a ruling on nine questions. The Court of Justice did not consider it necessary to consider all the nine questions. It ruled that it would be an infringement to the database right to use the meta-search engine in circumstances such as that involved in such proceedings. Under Article 7(1), an operator who makes available on the internet a dedicated meta-search engine such as GasPedaal re-utilises the whole or substantial part of the contents of a protected database, when that database's meta-search engine:</p>
<p>1) provides the end user with a search form which essentially offers the same range of functionality as the search form on the original database site.</p>
<p>2) where it translates queries from end users into the search engine for the database site in real time so that all the information on that database is searched through.</p>
<p>3) where it presents the results to the end user using a format of the website grouping duplications together into a single block item in an order that reflects the criteria comparable to those used by the search engine of the database site concerned for presenting results.</p>
<p>A dedicated meta-search engine is different from a general search engine based on an algorithm (like Google), primarily because a meta-search engine does not have its own data itself. It makes use of search engines of third party websites by transferring the queries from its users to the other search engines having first translated them into the relevant format required. It therefore offers the public a service where it searches the entire contents of the third-party databases or part of them in real time.</p>
<p>So Article 7(2)(b) has been broadly drafted to include "any other form of making available". The EUCJ attributed a broad meaning to the concept of reutilisation in its case law focusing on the objective of the database right which is to stimulate investment in data storage and processing systems. So in light of this objective, the re-utilisation has been construed as referring to any unauthorised act of making available to the public the results of the database maker's investment. Accordingly, in this case, it included any distribution to the public of the contents of the database regardless of the nature and form of the process used. When a website operator makes a dedicated meta-search engine available on the Internet, it does more than just point out the third-party databases that exist that a user can go to and consult. It gives the end user the means of searching all that data in most third-party databases without even visiting those third party databases' websites and akin to the Svensson and Bestwater case, this might mean that advertisers might stop advertising on the original third-party's site and might start placing advertisements on the meta-search engine's site. Now in this case we are looking at database rights, the EUCJ considered this dedicated meta-search engine to be close to a parasitical competing product. But it made a reference to the fact that this wording exists in Recital 42 of the Preamble of the Database Directive. The legislation is different, so this is why it has reached a different result, but still, it leads to a conflicting approach. So the Court of Justice held that the meta-search engine sites are close to being parasitical competing products and they've gone on to explain the fact that they resemble databases even though they themselves do not contain databases. And therefore in this case, and in similar cases, operators of such search engines would be making available to contents of third party websites within the meaning of Article 7(2)(b).</p>
<p><b>What are the effects of this judgement?</b></p>
<p>By bypassing the homepage and most other pages of the site that actually contain the database, meta-search engines can divert hits, and potentially advertising revenues. Operators of websites that scrape data from third parties and enable those third party sites to be searched, and by doing so thereby risks diverting advertising revenue may therefore need to review their technical business model in light of this judgement.</p>
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<div style="text-align: justify; ">
<p><b>Chaitanya Prasad, Controller General of Patents, Designs & Trade Marks, India</b></p>
<p>In India, patents, trademarks, designs, and geographical indications are administered by the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trademarks. We have offices in New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Ahmedabad. We have a Geographical Indications Registry located in Chennai as well as an Institute of Intellectual Property Management in Nagpur.</p>
<p>There are other IPR laws administered by different ministries. The Ministry of Human Resource Development looks after the Copyright laws. The Department of Information Technology looks after the Semiconductors, Integrated Circuits, and Layouts and Designs Act.</p>
<p>The number of patents in force in India in 2013 was 41,103 out of which 82 per cent were owned by non-resident Indians. The average age of patents in force in India is around 11.6 years, incidentally the second- highest in the world. The reason could be that India is a large market and companies want to exploit these patents and keep them in force.</p>
<p><b>National IP Trends</b></p>
<p>The filing of patents in India has gone up from around 35,000 to around 43,000 from 2007 to 2014, and the resident filing has gone up from 17% to 25%. In the year 2011-12, 11,000 patent applications were examined while in 2013-14, the number was 18,000. On a comparative basis, in India one patent examiner examined 140 patent applications in 2014 against 50 and 70 in the US and EU respectively. Therefore, it is the lack of human resources that is creating a backlog in the processing of patents in India vis-a-vis other countries.</p>
<p><b>Initiatives of the Indian Patent Office aimed at creating easy access to patents offices, and at Improving Its Quality and Services:</b></p>
<p>Comprehensive e-filing has been introduced where every document and form can be filed online, with regard to patent and trademarks. A payment gateway was launched in 2014, wherein Internet banking facilities of more than 70 banks can be used in addition to debit cards and credit cards for filing any patent or trademark. There is complete electronic processing in the patent and trademark office. Every paper that comes in is scanned, digitised and uploaded. Every paper that is issued from or received by the office is made available on the website.</p>
<p>An entry in the national phase can be done by filing Form 1 and the last page of the specification as we are directly streaming specifications from the WIPO patents scope. Incentives are being given for online filing. There is a 10% cost differential between online and offline filing since February 2014. One month after the incentive was introduced, online filing went up from 30% to 75%.</p>
<p>A new category has been introduced for Medium and Small Enterprises (MSMEs) in patents and designs. MSMEs get 50% discount for filing.</p>
<p>Quality management teams have been hired and skill development of personnel has been undertaken. Measures to introduce more transparency have been sought and efforts have been made to disseminate information with regard to IPRs. Real-time status of IP applications is available within tier file wrappers and e-registers.</p>
<p>The Indian Patent Office does weekly publication of online journals. We have a free public search facility. We have started instant email communications to applicants in trademarks specifically for filing purposes. We have started QR-coded communications for smartphones.</p>
<p>We have introduced a number of dynamic utilities where one can avail of information in real-time. Using the "stock and flow utility" one can find the stock of applications as well as the flow of applications from one process to another. From this, one can drill down to the office, the field, and the application itself and go to the file in the file wrapper and see the entire office thrown open to the world. One of the utilities counts and publicly displays the number of lapsed and expired patents in real-time. Because the patents have either lapsed or expired, these can be searched through fields of technology through any patent application that was not renewed or has expired. These applications are available on the website with the specification and search facility on a real-time basis. A number of other dynamic utilities for examinations, show-cause hearings, publications, registrations, et cetera have been made available online in real-time. We have started working as an international searching authority and have started giving high quality reports. These are currently available to all Indians.</p>
<p>We are shortly going to provide a searchable patent database. We are also bringing in an integrated search engine and are augmenting our human resources. The new government has approved 1,033 new posts in the patent and trademark offices, and with the training and skill of the increased human resources, we will stand on par with the best in the world with regard to the examination and disposal of both patent and trademark applications. We are completely overhauling our hardware and processing software. We will soon introduce new guidelines - one on computer-related inventions and another on search and examination generally.</p>
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<div style="text-align: justify; ">
<p><b><br /></b></p>
<p><b>Dr. Stefan V. Steinbrener, Consultant, Bardehle Pagenberg</b></p>
<p><b>Patentability of Computer-Implemented Inventions at the EPO</b></p>
<p>"Computer-implemented invention" (CII) is defined in the guidelines of the European Patents Office as an expression intended to cover claims which involve computers, computer networks, or other programmable apparatus, whereby prima facie one or more of the features of the claimed invention are realised by means of a programme or programs. Such a claim directed at computer-implemented inventions may take the form of a method of implementing said apparatus, apparatus set up to execute the method, or following the computer programme itself or as well as the physical media carrying the programme, computer programme product claims such as data carrier, storage medium, computer readable medium, or signal.</p>
<p>One can assume that an important part of all applications will fall under this definition. In 2010, the EPO granted 60,000 patents out of which 20,000 were covered by the said definition.</p>
<p>The core regulation is Article 52 of the EPC: European patents shall be granted for inventions in all fields of technology provided that they involve an inventive step and are susceptible for industrial application. Further, there is a list of non-inventions which include discoveries, scientific theories, mathematical methods, schemes, rules and methods for performing mental acts, playing games, doing business, programmes for computers, and presentations for information. This will include or exclude patentability only to the extent to which the European patent application or patent related to such subject matter or activity.</p>
<p>The nature and language of such a regulation mandate the identification of a criterion delimiting excluded items from non-excluded ones. On the one hand, we have no definition of statutory subject matter apart from stipulation that inventions arise from all fields of technology. On the other hand we have a definition of a non-exhaustive list of exceptions, which are not patentable or have non-patentable subject matter. This regulation is, however, contrasting with respect to US regulations. In paragraph 101 in the US, the definitions of statutory subject matter can be found and the non-patentable subject matter is determined through findings of the Supreme Court, abstract ideas, laws of nature and natural phenomena.</p>
<p>Thus from a legal aspect, there are two hurdles for patent eligibility. The first is the patent eligibility of the subject matter. If this is in the affirmative, then the next hurdle is whether the elements of a patent are satisfied, namely, novelty, innovativeness, and industrial applicability.</p>
<p>According to European standards, an invention may not be innovative but may be patent eligible so long as the subject matter is patentable. The judicial issues that are to be addressed are the development of a coherent method of identifying the patentability of a subject matter and subsequently dealing with the grey areas in technicality by sifting through individual cases in order to arrive at certain guidelines for approaching individual cases of patent eligibility.</p>
<p>The finding of the case law upon the first issue is that an invention is such if the claimed subject matter has some technical matter. A subject matter is said to have technical character if it relates to a technical device, product or relates to technical means. "Technical means" has been liberally construed such that in a particular matter a method of storing information using paper and a pencil is patent eligible subject matter because the method employs technical means such as paper and pencil. However, the same would not be patented as the implementation of the same is trivial. The answer to the same question of patentability would be no if it is among the excluded subject matter or is similar to another invention. The barrier to patent eligibility will not disappear but the threshold is much lower. It is only when a subject matter is completely devoid of technical means can it be not called can invention. Barriers also come into play when the idea is abstract or even if there is a possibility of the use of technical means to some extent but claims for the same are not made.</p>
<p><b>Are computer-implemented innovations patent eligible under the EPC?</b></p>
<p>The answer would be yes, if explicitly tied to technical means.</p>
<p>When determining whether the invention has the required qualities of a patent, the answer would be in the affirmative if those of the technical features that contribute to the technical character are noble, inventive and industrially applicable. Thus only features of a technical character are taken into consideration while the others making no such contribution are ignored. For example, there have been a lot of patent applications for business methods from the United States, after the State's Street Bank Decision. These applications may have about forty pages of description of the business innovation with a disclaimer note at the end stating that the implementation of the same can be achieved through basic hardware that are already in use. Such applications lack an inventive step and can therefore cannot be patented. Thus, the basic test of patent eligibility with regard to the definition of an invention is the determination of whether there is a technical solution to a technical problem.</p>
<p>Some of the excluded subject matter may contribute towards technical character. Mathematical methods, for example, in the case of cryptography, wherein a mathematical algorithm may assist in the implementation of the same; then such a mathematical method may be patentable.</p>
<p>Further, "technical" should be understood to mean technological. But generally, it is difficult to define the term "technical", even through case laws. The meaning of the same in the core area is however undisputed while the semantics which lack definition are only at the fringes which may be identified in individual cases. We thus work with a dynamic concept of technology.</p>
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<div style="text-align: justify; ">
<p><b><br /></b></p>
<p><b>Ravi Bhola, Partner, KnS Partners</b></p>
<p><b>Patent Valuation and its Interplay with FRAND Terms </b></p>
<p>There are two broad methodologies for the valuation of patents. One is quantitative valuation by taking into consideration the income, the cost, and the market. However, the more relevant method is the qualitative analysis wherein one can look into the scope of the claims, geographical coverage, et cetera. Patent valuation is sometimes speculative. However, in an observation made by a court in the Federal Circuit, a judge directed a re-trial stating that in the study by the patentee, which was an SEP holder, the damages were predicted on speculation and unrealistic assertions. Thus one can ponder about whether there is a requirement to take into consideration a greater number of tools, software, or parameters for the valuation of intellectual property.</p>
<p>In order to strike a balance with society, SEP holders are obligated to licence their patents on FRAND terms to interested parties. The observed trend is that because SEPs are more important, they are valued higher than regular patents. Therefore, the question arises: <b>Are SEPs are over- valued?</b> For this purpose, reference must be made to four ongoing cases concerning SEPs.</p>
<p><b>Ericsson v. Micromax:</b></p>
<p>While the adjudication had commenced, it was observed that Ericsson has prior license agreements on FRAND terms of its 8 SEPs (under litigation in this case) with players in the West and other parts of the world. The court thus called forth these agreements for perusal.</p>
<p>Therefore, the first contentious concern is the manner or methodology adopted by the courts to arrive at the unrealistic rates of royalties. However, it is evident in this case that the court, by referring to prior agreements with the same set of SEPs, are trying to bring down the rates of royalty to more realistic values, even at the interim stage.</p>
<p>A similar situation has been observed in the case between <b>Ericsson and Xiaomi</b>, which is pending in the Delhi High Court. Here the court arrived at the amount of Rs. 100 as an interim arrangement, till the adjudication of the matter has been completed. It was again speculated here as to whether the amount was inflated.</p>
<p>The trend observed in the patent litigation at the Delhi High Court where most of such matters are adjudicated, is that unlike the pharmaceuticals sphere, there is a greater tendency in the telecommunication patent litigation to grant a temporary injunction, modify or even vacate the same while determining royalties payable, even at this stage.</p>
<p><b>How has the West handled these matters with regard to SEP valuation? </b></p>
<p>Motorola sued Microsoft in the US over the infringement of some of its SEPs. The former sought 2.25% royalty, but the court set a lower rate, such that the royalty amount fell from 4 million USD to about 1.8 million USD. The question which arises is with regard to the manner of determination of such royalties and whether sufficient parameters are in existence [to determine royalties].</p>
<p>Another example is of a European case wherein Apple was found to be infringing SEPS owned by Motorola Mobility. Apple's claim before the European Commission was that as an interested and willing licensee, it had made efforts to obtain a license for the said patents under FRAND terms which Motorola Mobility deterred vehemently. The European Commission upon investigation found that Motorola was exploiting its dominant position in the market and it intentionally sought to oust Apple from the usage of technology protected by means of the SEPs. Damages were accordingly awarded in this case.</p>
<p>Therefore, there is uniformity in the notion that there is an obligation on SEP holders to license their patents to interested licensees on FRAND terms.</p>
<p><b>What constitutes reasonableness?</b></p>
<p>The presumption with subjective issues such as these is that the courts will define the same through case laws. While FRAND terms have been dealt with by the courts and even the European Commission, it is pertinent to note whether there have been any anti-trust or competition matters pertaining to the ongoing litigation in telecommunication patent infringement. The Competition law comes into picture while determining the checks and balances to ensure that the SEP holder acts in a reasonable manner.</p>
<p>In Micromax v. Ericsson and Intex v. Ericsson placed before the Competition Commission of India (CCI), Micromax and Ericsson claimed that they had approached Ericsson as licensees but the immense royalty rates put forth by Ericsson deterred them. The CCI after investigation affirmed the claims of Micromax and Intex, with the finding that Ericsson has indeed abused its dominant position. However, the Delhi High Court has directed the CCI to abstain from passing the final order as long as the case is sub-judice.</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify; "><b><br /></b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Daniel R. Bereskin</b> <b>, Q.C. Founding Partner, Bereskin & Parr LLP</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Patents as Catalysts to Economic Growth</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The more I studied WIPO data and other sources, the more I came to the conclusion that patent numbers, whether in terms of filing or grants are a pretty poor indicator of the level of innovation in a country. Many commentators have taken the view that the patent system throughout the world is in crisis and there are many reasons for this. Far too many patents are granted for very trivial innovative steps, if they are even innovative at all. They are tiny sideways steps, even backwards steps.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">When I started in 1965, in order to get a patent, you had to have an invention that was new, "unobvious" and useful. Now we see many thousands of patents granted annually for inventions that are of very dubious merit. Not only does this not encourage economic growth, it tends to retard economic growth. Think of small and medium-sized enterprises, for example. When they are confronted with many thousands of patents that are far too expensive for them to properly evaluate, covering very trivial or insignificant steps.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">It is really up to the government to a large extent to encourage innovation and they do that in many countries in different ways such as through research and development tax incentives. The trouble is that if a government spends money in encouraging research and development, it tends to be invisible to the ordinary member of the public whereas building roads and doing other things that are much more concrete in nature are easier and better from the short-term political view. At the same time, if a country is to grow economically, and to prosper in the future, it is absolutely crucial that governments make an investment. I think a rough rule of thumb is for governments to devote up to about 2% of their GDP to encouraging R&D, and that money is significant, but it has to be spent wisely.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Now India has come up for criticism by the US Chamber of Commerce for not adequately protecting IP rights. The International Trade Commission is conducting a survey right now of US firms to understand how the policies of India discriminate against US exports and investment. Canada is also on the watch-list, although it is the US's greatest trading partner and is in close proximity to the US. I find these comments to be very ironic because the US has a history of discriminating against foreigners when it comes to protecting its own citizens. In fact Prof. Jane Ginsburg who is a prominent teacher and writer called the US in the 19th century a pirate nation, and the reason why she said that is because the US refused to grant copyright to works of foreign authors and that did not change till 1891. The reason for that was that Americans liked to read British authors in preference to the works of American authors. So the solution was to not give copyrights to British authors. When they finally, grudgingly, granted copyright protection, it was on the condition that the books of foreign authors had to be manufactured in the United States. This manufacturing clause was not repealed until fairly recently and that was done only because by then the US realized that the US had become a big exporter of books by authors. So we have to take with a grain of salt the comments we get about IP policies in every country. It is very important to take a realistic view of what is really going on.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">China has grown steadily in the past eight years to the point where the growth is now over nine trillion dollars. The growth in filing patents in China is incredible. It is going up exponentially and shows no signs of abating. In 2012, WIPO showed that Chinese nationals were responsible for almost 150,000 granted Chinese patents and the number of issued patents to foreigners was roughly 75,000. The problem with China is that there is no way of knowing what the mix is between patents of invention and utility models. Given the enormous disparity between the number of applications filed by the Chinese people in China compared with those filed by them abroad, most of the inventions that are utility models, or patents that are of very dubious economic value. My feeling is that these huge numbers are due to government policy in dictating to Chinese companies that they have to file a lot of patent applications, because it is easy for a government to say, "Look at how impressive our filing statistics are". You have to dig deeper to try to find out what the value is of the innovations that are represented by these patents. My feeling is that since such a small number, roughly 4% of all applications filed by the Chinese in China were filed abroad, that is an indication that the vast majority of these huge Chinese filings are not of any great economic importance.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">India's GDP is over 1.3 trillion dollars. Economists predict that in 15 years, the Indian economy is expected to rival that of the US. Of course, India has a population of over 1.3 billion. The US has, maybe, a quarter of that. So you cannot exactly compare them.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Patent applications in Indiai show a somewhat disturbing trend. Although there is some growth in the patent filings by resident applicants, non-residents' filings swamp [outnumber] those of the residents. The number of applications filed abroad by companies and individuals of Indian origin is less than 10,000, which is a very small number given the size of the Indian economy.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">There has been a very sharp decline in the past four years in the number of patents that are actually granted to individuals or companies where the inventors are of Indian origin. In 2014, less than 600 patents were granted to Indian nationals [WIPO statistics]. The number of patents granted to foreign applications is likewise declining and it is surprising. It could mean that the Indian Patent Office is getting tougher on "unobviousness". Nevertheless, the numbers are still pretty low.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Korea is a real success story. Their GDP is not yet at the level of India or China, but it is at 1.3 trillion dollars, which is not insignificant. But take a look at their patent application filings. Korean inventors were responsible for almost 150,000 filings in 2012. Koreans filed more than 50,000 applications abroad in the same year. These grants are substantial compared with [erstwhile] figures for India and China.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The US GDP is close to 17 trillion dollars and the economy seems to be continuing to grow. Right now the US economy is about 27% of the worldwide GDP. It is reasonable to conclude that the US has a very strong and vested interest in trying to ensure that IP rights are protected outside of the US because their continued growth depends on the protection of their homegrown IP.</p>
<div style="text-align: justify; ">
<p><b><br /></b></p>
<p><b>Questions-Answers </b></p>
<p><b>How do you compare and contrast recent litigation in pharma versus litigation in the high-tech space, especially Ericsson and Vringo?</b></p>
<p><b>Pravin Anand (Managing Partner, Anand & Anand): </b> In the Francis Xavier case in New Delhi, a division bench of the Delhi High Court said that an ex-parte injunction must not be granted in patent cases. The law, however, changed subsequently. The first evidence is of a DCJI clearance required when an application was moved by a pharma company and the news reached the patent owner by means of a right-to-information (RTI) request and private investigation. The patent owner then approached the court in order to prevent to the marketing of the product. Thus, before the launch of the product, the patent holder obtained a status quo. The rules of the division bench did not apply because balance of convenience was observed in maintaining the status quo. But that order essentially acted as an ex-parte injunction in a patent matter. This was phase one. Phase two saw the grant of injunction as the number of status quo order had exceeded twenty five in litigation against well known companies such as Pfeizer and Bristol Meyers. These orders were converted to injunctions by the judges.</p>
<p>The third phase was brought on by the Ericsson, Vringo, and other electronics companies, which albeit through lesser litigations, were able to create quite a stir. Ex-parte injunctions were granted in these cases. However, the judges felt the need to arrive at interim arrangements in lieu of the injunctions. Earlier, pending trial, these arrangements involved the payment of money and royalty by the defendants through their sales, directly to the plaintiff.</p>
<p>Therefore, the present stance is that both status quo orders and temporary injunctions are in use in pharma litigation before the launch of the product. Subsequently, the grant of such orders is rare. The impediment after launch is that the price difference between the plaintiff's and the defendant's product are evident to the question. Prior to the launch, only the plaintiff's product exists in the market. Hence, the grant of such orders is said to be in favour of balance of convenience. The mobile phone patent litigation cases, however, are witnessing the grant of interim orders, rather, arrangements.</p>
<p><b>Why is it that the Courts cannot wait another day to hear both the parties before granting the ad interim injunction?</b></p>
<p><b>Abhay Pandey, Partner, LexOrbis:</b> The main issue that is going to come up in electronic product litigation is the pleading which contains the product mapping. In the Ericsson cases, there is an indirect reference made to the infringements, i.e., the devices are following the standards and not the readings to the claims. Therefore, the issue of injunctions will arrive only once the product is broken down into the claims.</p>
<p><b>D.P. Vaidya (Lakshmikumaran Sreedharan)</b></p>
<p><b>Computer Related Inventions and Indian Patent Law</b></p>
<p>Section 2 of the Indian Patent Act defines “invention” as any new process or new product which has or which involves an inventive step and is capable of industrial applications. “Inventive step” as well as “capable of industrial application” are defined in the Act. Section 3 defines what are not inventions. With respect to computer related inventions (CRIs), section 3(k) is worded differently than the provision for CRIs in the European Patent Convention (EPC). In Indian law, mathematical methods, algorithms, and business methods are not considered “inventions”, irrespective of whether they are “as such”. Computer programs are qualified with the phrase “per se” instead. The only common thing between EPC and Indian patent law is that “computer programs per se” or “computer programs as such” are not inventions. So programs that do not quality “per se” or “as such” could be patentable.</p>
<p><b>What are CRIs?</b></p>
<p>CRIs can be classified as: CRIs related to general purpose computers and CRIs implemented by specific computers (and not special purpose computers). General purpose computers are inventions that work towards different types of solutions. The solutions could be purely mathematical calculations or technical problems.</p>
<p>The term “business method” is not precisely defined in law as much as the abstract idea is. Generally speaking, any commercial transaction will qualify as a “business method” going by my observations from various decisions in the US, UK, and Europe.</p>
<p><b>Example technical problem:</b> What is the point of presence (PoP) for designing network topology or network architecture?</p>
<p>Based on rules and various parameters defined for the topology or architecture, a schematic is drawn up. It shows the locations where the PoPs should be placed to minimise the cost of operations and the investment. This is also an application that can be implemented over a general purpose computer.</p>
<p><b>Would it fall under the definition of an “algorithm”? </b>The definition of “algorithm” in the guidelines is very broad. Whether or not it is implemented on a [general purpose] computer, it will be treated as a “computer” because there is no qualifier as “per se” or “as such”. If it is an algorithm, it is not patentable.</p>
<p>Then, <b>what is not an “algorithm”? </b>It could be argued that all methods will fall under the definition of “algorithm”. The IEEE definition of a “solution to a problem” is that it is a finite set of well-defined rules in a finite number of steps. For example, a complete specification for a sequence of arithmetic operations for evaluating the value of sin “x” for a given precision. When the aim is mainly to determine a certain value or function for optimisation or for arithmetic calculations, the method or process can be treated as an “algorithm”. From a legal point of view, methods are patentable, but paradoxically, algorithms are not considered inventions.</p>
<p>Then next level of general-purpose computer-implemented inventions (CII) are those that make changes in the operating systems [instead of sitting on top of the operating system]. By making changes in the operating system, the CII is changing the character of the computer. It is improving the computer, and therefore it is patentable. Also, a general purpose computer operating a machine or a technical process is patentable.</p>
<p><b>Embedded Computer-Implemented Inventions:</b></p>
<p>Wherever there is embedded software, the patent controllers generally do not have any issues related to patentability. They may have issues related to inventive step.</p>
</div>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/report-global-intellectual-property-convention-2015'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/report-global-intellectual-property-convention-2015</a>
</p>
No publisherrohiniIntellectual Property RightsAccess to Knowledge2015-06-21T13:36:18ZBlog EntryOdia Wikipedia Turning 13 this June 3
https://cis-india.org/openness/events/odia-wikipedia-turning-thirteen
<b>The Odia Wikipedia is turning 13 this June 3. To celebrate this long time of the editor community's tireless effort to make it to the largest Odia-language online encyclopedia an event is being organised in Odisha' capital Bhubaneswar. Centre for Internet and Society's Access To Knowledge (CIS-A2K) is proudly sponsoring for this event. Subhashish Panigrahi and Rahmanuddin Shaik are representing CIS at this event.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Over 20 Wikipedians from various corners of India are participating for a public gathering that is planned on June 3 at the Institute of Physics at 5 pm. A day-long internal meetup for the community in the presence of Wikimedia India and CIS-A2K has been planned that focuses on raising consensus for policy and guidelines for Odia Wikipedia, and planning for the activities ahead in the light of successes and learning from failures from the past.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">Promotional Banner</h3>
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<th><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/OdiaWikipedia13bannerCCbySA4.0.png" alt="null" class="image-inline" title="Odia Wikipedia" /></th>
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<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/openness/events/odia-wikipedia-turning-thirteen'>https://cis-india.org/openness/events/odia-wikipedia-turning-thirteen</a>
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No publishersubhaAccess to KnowledgeWikimediaWikipediaOdia WikipediaEvent2016-06-18T18:19:22ZEventJoining the Dots in India's Big-Ticket Mobile Phone Patent Litigation (Updated)
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/joining-the-dots-in-indias-big-ticket-mobile-phone-patent-litigation
<b>An analysis of the significant commonalities and differences in various big-ticket lawsuits in India over the alleged infringement of mobile device patents. </b>
<p>This blog post has been merged with <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/compilation-of-mobile-phone-patent-litigation-cases-in-india">another on the same topic</a> and published as a paper. The paper was last updated in October 2017.</p>
<h3><strong><a class="external-link" href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3120364">View paper on SSRN.</a></strong></h3>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/joining-the-dots-in-indias-big-ticket-mobile-phone-patent-litigation'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/joining-the-dots-in-indias-big-ticket-mobile-phone-patent-litigation</a>
</p>
No publisherrohiniFeaturedAccess to KnowledgePervasive Technologies2018-05-06T03:51:49ZBlog EntryStatement by the Centre for Internet and Society on the Broadcast Treaty at SCCR 30
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/statement-by-the-centre-for-internet-and-society-india-on-the-broadcast-treaty-at-sccr-30
<b>The 30th Session of the World Intellectual Property Organization's ("WIPO") Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights ("SCCR") is underway in Geneva from 29 June, 2015 to 03 July, 2015. While CIS was unable to attend this meeting, we have the following statement to make on negotiations on the Proposed Treaty for Broadcasting Organizations.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">This statement was prepared on behalf of CIS by Nehaa Chaudhari. Many thanks to Pranesh Prakash and Amulya Purushothama for their inputs.</p>
<hr style="text-align: justify; " />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Mister Chair,</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Our intervention will speak to the presentations made by broadcasting organizations on Day 1 and Member and Group Statements on Days 1 and 2.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">First, Mr. Chair, generally on technical panels- If <i>this</i> is the manner in which this Committee will be appraised of new developments, without prejudice to our reservations about this ad-hoc manner itself, we <i>strongly</i> suggest that other interest groups and stakeholders be provided a similar opportunity to present their side of the story, in front of this Committee, for one entire day. Industry representatives, including those from telecommunications, information technology, consumers electronics, and performers- and not just various public interest NGOs have been expressing reservations and concerns about this Treaty from at least as far back as 2006, if not earlier. We appreciate Group B’s ask in their introductory statement to “continue to hear the voices of the real world” – We only ask that you award all stakeholders an equivalent, if not equal opportunity to be heard in the manner that you have the broadcasters; without privileging the interests of the broadcasters above the others. There must be a recognition of the rights of other stakeholders including content owners- not just in the Treaty as noted by India yesterday, but also in the discussions leading up to it.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Second, Mr. Chair, on Technical Background Paper document SCCR 7/8 – which you had flagged off as relevant for this session in your summary of SCCR 29 – but, of course, I stand to be corrected if I have understood incorrectly. Mr. Chair, this document is more than a decade old – it seems to have seen no updates since 2002, and even in that form, it is wanting. The document excludes from its scope the rationale for the treaty as well as the scope for protection, which we find problematic, especially given as these have been among the most contentious topics in this Committee. Additionally in only dealing primarily with the Rome Convention with but a passing reference to other international instruments, if at all, it presents an incomplete overview of the legal framework already available to broadcasters. I also have other comments to this document, which I will send in writing. We’d strongly urge that an updated version of this document be presented to this Committee so that we can have a more accurate discussion, just like the one on market and technology trends has been updated as SCCR 30/5.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Third, Mr. Chair, on the presentations and statements themselves. A reason oft cited in this Committee, Mr. Chair, has been the need to protect the underlying investment and the purported loss of revenue. From their presentations on Day 1 Mr. Chair, it seems to us that the broadcasters are doing perfectly alright <i>without </i>a Broadcast Treaty. Mr. Knapp for IHS in fact said that <b>“</b><b>Despite digitization, TV homes, paid TV homes are growing globally”, </b>stating also, that there was a very high average revenue per user in North America and a <b>“double digit growth in the pay TV sector”</b> in other regions, which meant a <b>“fairly healthy industry despite all the digital disruption side”.</b> We have also heard from TV Globo who told us of the progress made in advertising and pay TV and smartphone penetration in Brazil, and from Zee Telefilms from India who spoke of a booming broadcasting industry. <b></b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Mr. Chair, Nothing we have heard so far addresses three important questions – why is there a need for a separate right? Why are protections under the Rome Convention inadequate? While piracy might well be an issue, why can’t it be covered under existing copyright law – all of which comes down to why we’re discussing the creation of a para copyright regime for broadcasting organizations.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">From the Caribbean Broadcasting Union, we heard about emerging technologies and the challenges due to piracy. There was also a mention of significant investment – but if that is to be the basis for this treaty, we would ask that detailed reports of these investments and losses also be placed before this Committee. Also, none of this addresses the lacunae in the Rome Convention or existing international copyright law.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Mr. Chair, we have repeatedly heard from Group B and the European Union on the ‘significant economic value of broadcasting’, but, this economic value has had international law recognition for a while now. While the CEBS group, Japan and Russia speak highly of technological advancements to justify the need for the Broadcast Treaty, there has still been no discussion on the inadequacy of existing international law to address these technological advancements. There needs to be something more that justifies this attempt to give broadcasters an additional layer of rights. It might be useful to conduct a comprehensive study on signal theft and piracy and the legal frameworks in every member state to deal with signal theft and piracy, and an updated study on the international legal framework as well. This Committee has precedent on such an exercise in Prof. Kenneth Crews’ study on limitations and exceptions for libraries and archives that has been tabled at this SCCR.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Mr. Chair, this para copyright we’re trying to create, especially without all stakeholders being heard equally, would in effect severely limit any competition that broadcasting organizations would face from the Internet and other emerging technologies; which is undesirable for any market, besides access to free knowledge and information, as well put by the delegation of Iran.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Thank you.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/statement-by-the-centre-for-internet-and-society-india-on-the-broadcast-treaty-at-sccr-30'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/statement-by-the-centre-for-internet-and-society-india-on-the-broadcast-treaty-at-sccr-30</a>
</p>
No publishernehaaAccess to KnowledgeWIPO2015-07-02T01:20:38ZBlog EntryTelugu Wikipedia edit-a-thon at Annamacharya library to preserve rare Telugu literature text
https://cis-india.org/openness/events/rare-telugu-religious-and-historical-work-preserved-at-annamacharya-library-to-come-on-wikisource
<b>Telugu Wikipedia Community and the Centre for Internet & Society are conducting the Annamaya Library edit-a-thon on August 6, 2015 at Andhra Loyola College, Vijaywada.</b>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/openness/events/rare-telugu-religious-and-historical-work-preserved-at-annamacharya-library-to-come-on-wikisource'>https://cis-india.org/openness/events/rare-telugu-religious-and-historical-work-preserved-at-annamacharya-library-to-come-on-wikisource</a>
</p>
No publisherrahimWikimediaWikipediaEventAccess to Knowledge2016-06-18T18:12:24ZEventCivic BRICS Forum 2015
https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/civic-brics-forum
<b>I attended the Civil BRICS Forum in Moscow last month. My session fell under the Economics and Trade category; and I spoke on the importance of maintaining a balanced IP regime, strengthening access to knowledge and medicines, and ensuring free speech and innovation. The event was held in Moscow from June 29 to July 1, 2015.</b>
<p>The working group also invited comments to the Zero draft recommendations and I drafted a quick response to the problematic aspects of the draft. See the <a class="external-link" href="http://www.civilbrics.ru/upload/iblock/98f/98ff0311a446ba25e9349b744e017df4.pdf">Civic BRICS Forum Statement</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">BRICS is a unique interactive format of the five largest and most dynamically developing countries - Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. BRICS member states in total occupied about a quarter of the land on the world map. The total population of the BRICS countries is about 40%. The cumulative gross domestic product (GDP) is about 26% of the global one. However, BRICS is not only a club intended to strengthen the economic impact of the rapidly developing countries, but as well a fundamentally new form of international or rather an inter-civilizational dialogue based on the principles of polycentricity, non-hierarchy and networking. Therefore it seems that BRICS is able to propose a new concept of equal interaction over all vectors of interstate cooperation: in the monetary sphere, allocation of resources, trade, political and human relations.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Our Internet resource will help not only to get acquainted closer with history and activity of the BRICS club, to trace news and analytical articles on the agenda both the international process of BRICS, and Civil BRICS, but also to participate directly in Civil BRICS activity by means of forums of the Dialogues Internet platform.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">List of Panels<b></b></h3>
<ol>
<li><b>Culture of BRICS countries 2015-2040: challenges for public administration (2 parts, longer session)</b> <br />D K Hari, Bharath Gyan</li>
<li><b>Building racial, ethnic and religious tolerance and nondiscrimination, regulation of migration and integration of migrants (2 parts, longer session) </b><br />Anasua Basu Rau Choudhary, ORF Kolkata</li>
<li><b>System of intellectual property protection and promotion of innovations <br /></b>Anubha Sinha, Programme Officer, Access to Knowledge</li>
<li><b>BRICS and construction of a multipolar world <br /></b>Anchal Vohra, CNN-IBN<b><br /> </b></li>
<li><b>MDGs Implementation, SDGs and role of the BRICS countries </b><br />Gautam Kirtane, ORF Mumbai<b><br /> </b></li>
<li><b>Social role ofintellectual property protection in healthcare </b><br />Nilanjana Bose, GHS </li>
<li><b>Modern global challenges and the role of the BRICS in ensuring peace and security </b><br />Rajeswari Rajagopalan, ORF Delhi</li>
<li><b>Sustainable Energy and Climate Change </b><br />Sonali Mitra, ORF Delhi<b> <br /></b></li>
<li><b>The role of education and science in the development of human capital </b><br />Aparna Sundaresan, ORF Mumbai </li>
<li><b>Public healthcare development and access to medical services as priority of BRICS international development </b><br /> Anjali Nayyar, GHS </li>
<li><b>Socially responsible trade as a tool for further economic development of the BRICS countries<br /> </b>Nilanjan Ghosh, ORF Kolkata </li>
<li><b>Economics in the finite world </b><br />Rajrishi Singhal, Gateway House</li>
<li><b>Non-Western view on the World's future </b><br />Varun Sahni, JNU<b> <br /> </b></li>
<li><b>BRICS and global South societies in addressing growing inequality </b><br />Ashok Malik, ORF Delhi<b> <br /> </b></li>
<li><b>Involvement of civil society in global governance and shaping the world’s future (open discussion) </b><br />TCA Rangachari </li>
<li><b>BRICS New Development Bank: acting for the common good (open discussion) </b><br />Samir Saran, ORF Delhi </li>
<li><b>Food security and civil society </b><br />Rahul Goswami, Centre for Social Markets </li>
<li><b>Challenges and threats of the modern world: "color revolutions" and use of "soft power" </b><br />Mihir Sharma, Business Standard </li>
<li><b>Money as a Weapon (open discussion) </b><br />Pranay Kothasthane, Takshashila Institution </li>
<li><b>Green economy and innovative development (open discussion) </b><br />Kanika Chawla, CEEW </li>
<li><b>Sustainable development of local administration: municipal and private innovative entrepreneurship projects <br /></b>Rumi Aijaz, ORF Delhi </li>
<li><b>BRICS educational space: ways to strengthen scientific and academic ties. Aiming at high quality education (open discussion)<br /> </b>Dhaval Desai, ORF Mumbai</li>
<li><b>Disease prevention and promotion of healthy lifestyles among children and youth from BRICS-countries (open discussion)</b> <br />Sarah Farooqui, Takshashila Institution</li>
</ol>
<hr />
<p><a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/civic-brics.pdf" class="external-link"><b>Download the schedule</b></a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/civic-brics-forum'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/civic-brics-forum</a>
</p>
No publishersinhaAccess to Knowledge2015-08-10T14:27:35ZNews ItemMHRD IPR Chair Series: Introduction
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/mhrd-ipr-chair-series-introduction
<b>In this blog post, Amulya Purushothama announces our new MHRD IPR Chair Series and charts the sequence of events, starting from the establishment of the MHRD IPR Chairs, to discussions surrounding their purpose and functioning, to concerns surrounding the lack of information about the IPR Chairs, the first round of RTIs CIS had filed in regard to this and the responses received. This series will document and analyze further RTIs filed and responses received in this regard.
</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><i>Special thanks to CIS Intern Aditya Garg for his research and support on this.</i></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Genesis of MHRD IPR Chairs</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Intellectual Property Education, Research and Public Outreach (IPERPO) scheme (Scheme) was set up by the Ministry for Human Resources and Development (MHRD) to encourage study of IP rights and research and create awareness about IP matters. The Scheme was also supposed to develop specialized courses, train enforcement personnel, organize seminars and workshops on IPR matters, develop inputs, awareness on WTO matters and evolve strategies of regional co-operation.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">It was under this scheme that the MHRD-IPR Chairs were set up. These IPR Chairs were set up in 20 Universities and Institutes across India including 6 in Universities, 6 in IITs, 5 in National Law Universities and 3 in IIMs.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Performance of MHRD IPR Chairs</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS had reported that the Planning Commission and the MHRD in 2014 organized a stakeholders consultation where they discussed India’s National Program on Intellectual Property Management. Apart from <a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/mapping-institutions-of-intellectual-property-part-a">discussing</a> the need to revisit the purpose behind the MHRD IPR Chairs program, One of the documents <a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/mapping-institutions-of-intellectual-property-part-b">discussed</a> in the context of evaluating how the IPR Chairs function was the <a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/report-of-the-evaluation-committee.pdf">Report of the Evaluation Committee on Continuation of the Scheme of IPERO in the XII Five Year Plan Period 2012-2017</a> (Evaluation Committee Report).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Evaluation Committee Report among other things noted that many IPR Chair positions are left vacant, that there is no explicit mandate for the activities to be undertaken by the MHRD IPR Chairs, that most of the Chairs only organize a few workshops and deliver lectures and as a consequence the research outputs produced by the Chairs have been very weak. This leads to underutilization of funds available under the scheme.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Evaluation Committee Report stated that the IPR Chairs were not performing well due to a number of reasons such as: inability to find a suitable Professor level person to occupy the IPR Chair, absence of qualification-criteria for the IPR chair in the Scheme, lack of focus on research, development of human resource and teaching, non-appointment of adequate staff by IPR Chairs, flow of funds to the IPR Chair being interrupted due to lack of proper documentation, uncertainty about the continuation of IPR Chairs etc.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Informational vacuum around MHRD IPR Chairs</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The MHRD launched the <a href="http://www.mhrdiprchairs.org/Home.aspx">MHRD IPR Chair Gateway</a> recently. It was developed by the IPR Chair of NALSAR to serve as a forum where the information about the team of the MHRD IPR Chair, research work done by them, events hosted by them and degrees offered by them are available in one common platform. This gateway is a definite improvement when compared to the website of the <a href="http://copyright.gov.in/frmlistiprchair.aspx">Copyright Office</a> which was the central host for the MHRD IPR Chairs earlier.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">However, the website is difficult to navigate through and even though the design of the gateway is comprehensive, the information is uploaded by the individual IPR Chairs themselves. The information about some MHRD IPR Chairs is up to date, while some others. None of the Chairs seem to have uploaded the mandated Annual Report of their work.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">As CIS has <a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/mhrd-ipr-chairs-underutilization-of-funds-and-lack-of-information-regarding-expenditures">reported</a> earlier there exists an informational vacuum around the activities of the MHRD IPR Chairs, the funds allocated to them and accounts of utilization of these funds. Most of the information that is available can only be found in pieces and fragments. The last near comprehensive account of allocation and expenditure of funds with regard to all the IPR Chairs is the Evaluation Committee Report that dates back to 2013.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The following table shows a matrix of individual MHRD IPR Chairs, their status, and information available about them.</p>
<table class="grid listing" style="text-align: justify; ">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
<p>S.No.</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Name of Institute</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Instituted</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Present Status</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Last Active</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Website</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Information Available</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>1</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>University of Delhi</p>
</td>
<td></td>
<td>
<p>Active (since February 2014)</p>
</td>
<td></td>
<td>
<p>Chair is supposed to be working in Cluster Innovation Centre, DU.</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Information present on the MHRD website; no separate dedicated website.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>2</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>University of Madras</p>
</td>
<td></td>
<td>
<p>Active (Co-coordinator assigned)</p>
</td>
<td></td>
<td>
<p>None.</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>None, even on University of Madras website.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>3</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT), Cochin</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>2003</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Not Active</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>March 2012</p>
</td>
<td>
<p><a href="http://ciprs.cusat.ac.in/hrdchair.php">http://ciprs.cusat.ac.in/hrdchair.php</a></p>
<p>Link on CUSAT’s Schools of Legal Studies’ website which is supposed to redirect – broken</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Provides information of work done under the Chair till 2012.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>4</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Tezpur University</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>2010</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Active</p>
</td>
<td></td>
<td>
<p><a href="http://www.tezu.ernet.in/mhrdipr/index.html">http://www.tezu.ernet.in/mhrdipr/index.html</a></p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Lists their objects and past activities up to 2012; interestingly the name of the IPR Chair cannot be found on this website, although the name of the Staff is present.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>5</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bangalore</p>
</td>
<td></td>
<td>
<p>Active</p>
</td>
<td></td>
<td>
<p><a href="https://www.nls.ac.in/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=65%3Athe-centre-for-intellectual-property-research-and-advocacy-cipra&catid=6%3Aacademic-programmes&Itemid=32">https://www.nls.ac.in/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=65%3Athe-centre-for-intellectual-property-research-and-advocacy-cipra&catid=6%3Aacademic-programmes&Itemid=32</a></p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Provides information about their project (developed iprlawindia.org). No dedicated website.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>6</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur</p>
</td>
<td></td>
<td>
<p>Not Active (site says selection process is ongoing)</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>June 2010</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>None.</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>None.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>7</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur</p>
</td>
<td></td>
<td>
<p>Not Active</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>October 2013</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>None.</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>None.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>8</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay</p>
</td>
<td></td>
<td>
<p>Active</p>
</td>
<td></td>
<td>
<p>Functions under Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management, IIT-B (<a href="http://www.som.iitb.ac.in/">http://www.som.iitb.ac.in/</a>) but no separate website.</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Nothing on the SJMSOM website.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>9</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras</p>
</td>
<td></td>
<td>
<p>Active</p>
</td>
<td></td>
<td>
<p>Works under Department of Management Studies, IIT-Madras (<a href="http://www.doms.iitm.ac.in/">http://www.doms.iitm.ac.in/</a>) but no separate website.</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Annual Report for 2014-15: <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/4tmyrkdmwvfa3ud/Annual%20Report%20IPR%20Chair%20IITM%202014-2015.pdf?dl=0">https://www.dropbox.com/s/4tmyrkdmwvfa3ud/Annual%20Report%20IPR%20Chair%20IITM%202014-2015.pdf?dl=0</a></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>10</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi</p>
</td>
<td></td>
<td>
<p>Currently on Leave</p>
</td>
<td></td>
<td>
<p>Works under Department of Management Studies, IIT-Delhi (<a href="http://dms.iitd.ac.in/%20">http://dms.iitd.ac.in/ </a>) but no separate website.</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Nothing on the DOMS website.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>11</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Roorkee</p>
</td>
<td></td>
<td>
<p>Active</p>
</td>
<td></td>
<td>
<p><a href="http://www.iitr.ac.in/ipr/">http://www.iitr.ac.in/ipr/</a> - Website of their IPR Cell; doesn’t list the work of the MHRD IPR Chair separately.</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Basic activities undertaken by their Cell; nothing in particular about research work done by the Chair.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>12</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Delhi</p>
</td>
<td></td>
<td>
<p>Active</p>
</td>
<td></td>
<td>
<p>Works under Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, School of Social Sciences, JNU. No separate website.</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>No information about the work undertaken.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>13</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Delhi School of Economics, DU, Delhi</p>
</td>
<td></td>
<td>
<p>Not Active</p>
</td>
<td></td>
<td>
<p>None.</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>None.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>14</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmadabad</p>
</td>
<td></td>
<td>
<p>Not Active.</p>
</td>
<td></td>
<td>
<p>None.</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>None.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>15</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Calcutta</p>
</td>
<td></td>
<td>
<p>Not Active.</p>
</td>
<td></td>
<td>
<p>None.</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>None.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>16</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Bangalore</p>
</td>
<td></td>
<td>
<p>Active</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>2004</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>No information on the IIM Bangalore website.</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>None.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>17</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad</p>
</td>
<td></td>
<td>
<p>Active</p>
</td>
<td></td>
<td>
<p>Works under <b>N. C. Banerjee Centre for Intellectual Property Rights Studies</b>.</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>List of activities undertake have been mentioned in the Centre’s working. No separate dedicated website.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>18</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>National Law University (NLU), Jodhpur</p>
</td>
<td></td>
<td>
<p>Active</p>
</td>
<td></td>
<td>
<p><a href="http://www.nlujodhpur.ac.in/mhrd_ipr_chair.php">http://www.nlujodhpur.ac.in/mhrd_ipr_chair.php</a></p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Lists down the work undertaken, events hosted, research, etc.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>19</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>National Law University (NLU), Bhopal</p>
</td>
<td></td>
<td>
<p>Active</p>
</td>
<td></td>
<td>
<p>None.</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>None.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>20</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences (WBNUJS), Kolkata</p>
</td>
<td></td>
<td>
<p>Not Active</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>December 2013</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>None.</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>None</p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">As can be seen, out of the twenty MHRD IPR Chairs, only 13 remain active while the rest have become inactive. The MHRD Chair at IIT Kanpur was last active over five years ago in June 2010. Out of the twenty, 11 IPR Chairs either do not have a website or redirect to a broken link. Out of the 20, fifteen do not provide any information or only provide for outdated information. Only one of the twenty, the IIT Madras Chair, has provided the mandated Annual Report for 2014-2015.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>RTIs and Responses</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS has filed several RTIs before the IPR Chairs asking for information regarding allocation of funds and utilization of funds.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The first round of RTIs filed in November 2014, elicited adequate <a href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/rti-responses-mhrd-ip-chairs-details-of-funding-and-expenditure">responses</a> from seven out of twenty IPR Chairs. Among the rest, the IPR Chairs at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi University, Delhi School of Economics, Tezpur University and CUSAT Kerala did not provide information. And IIT Kharagpur sought exemption from providing this information under Section 8(1) (d) of the RTI Act, 2005.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Of those who did respond favorably to the RTI and had received money (five in number), three institutions, NLU Jodhpur, NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad and IIT Bombay had underutilized the funds allocated to them. NLSIU, Bangalore had spent more than the allocated funds and IIM, Bangalore had spent the entire amount allocated.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>MHRD IPR Chair Series </b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">We have since followed up with the IPR Chairs with further RTI applications and received responses for the same. Updates on the same will now be part of our MHRD IPR Chair Series. Watch this space.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/mhrd-ipr-chair-series-introduction'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/mhrd-ipr-chair-series-introduction</a>
</p>
No publisherAmulya PurushothamaIntellectual Property RightsAccess to Knowledge2015-09-03T15:17:22ZBlog EntryAn Interview of Vera Franz
https://cis-india.org/news/interview-of-vera-franz
<b>This interview was conducted at the Diplomatic Conference to Conclude a Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works by Visually Impaired Persons and Persons with Print Disabilities on June 26, 2013. </b>
<p>Vera Franz praises Rahul Cherian of Inclusive Planet while talking about her work. Watch the video below:</p>
<h3>Video</h3>
<p><iframe frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/hhHKJ0DQh4Y" width="320"></iframe></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/news/interview-of-vera-franz'>https://cis-india.org/news/interview-of-vera-franz</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaCopyrightVideoAccessibilityAccess to Knowledge2013-07-15T09:49:16ZNews ItemMHRD IPR Chair Series: Information Received from IIT, Kharagpur
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/mhrd-ipr-chair-series-information-received-from-iit-kharagpur
<b>This post provides a factual description about the operation of Ministry of Human Resource Development IPR Chair’s Intellectual Property Education, Research and Public Outreach (IPERPO) scheme in the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The author has analysed all the data received through which, the author seeks to trace the presence of unjustified underutilisation of funds by the aforementioned university as provided by the MHRD during the period of 2013-2014.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">To collect the information for the given study, an RTI application was filed to IIT, Kharagpur on 25/11/2014 by the Centre for Internet and Society. The reply to the same was received on 17/12/2014. Following this, a second application was filed on the 10/03/2015 by the Centre for Internet and Society. The reply to RTI application was received on 17/04/2015.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">These are the documents received by CIS from IIT, Kharagpur:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<div style="text-align: justify; ">For the reply to the first RTI application <a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/IIT%20KGP%20-%20Response%20-%2017.12.14%20-1.pdf/" class="external-link">click here</a></div>
</li>
<li>
<div style="text-align: justify; ">For the reply to the second RTI application <a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/IIT%20Kharagpur0001.pdf/" class="external-link">click here</a></div>
</li>
<li>
<div style="text-align: justify; ">For the documents detailing the proposal for the setting up of IPR chair in IIT, Kharagpur, <a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/IIT%20KGP%20-%20Proposal%20for%20operationalization%20of%20IPR%20Chairs.pdf/" class="external-link">click here</a></div>
</li>
<li>
<div style="text-align: justify; ">For the documents detailing the minutes of the meeting regarding the setting up of the IPR chair in IIT, Kharagpur, <a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/IIT%20KGP%20-%20Minutes%20of%20meeting%20in%202006.pdf" class="external-link">click here</a></div>
</li>
</ul>
<p>Hereinafter, in order to receive any information about IIT, Kharagpur’s RTI reply, kindly refer to the above mentioned links. Following are the queries mentioned in the RTI application along with their replies.</p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Reports on the implementation of the IPERPO scheme of the Ministry of Human Resource Development and the implementation of the MHRD IPR Chair funded under the scheme at IIT, Kharagpur<br />Reply: IIT, Kharagpur has submitted the documents required under this track.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Documents detailing the release of grants to the MHRD IPR Chairs under the IPERPO Scheme<br />Reply: Documents pertaining to the year <a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/IIT%20KGP%20-%20Release%20of%20grant%20in%20aid%20-%2011.5.06.pdf/" class="external-link">2006</a> and <a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/IIT%20KGP%20-%20Release%20of%20grant%20in%20aid%20-%2027.12.13%20-1.pdf/" class="external-link">2013</a> have been submitted by the University.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Documents relating to receipts of utilisation certificates and audited expenditure statements and matters related to all financial sanctions with regard to funds granted to the MHRD IPR Chair established under the IPERPO scheme at IIT, Kharagpur.<br />Reply: The University replied that it has not received any confirmation from the MHRD regarding the mentioned documents.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Comparative Analysis between University Response and the guidelines of MHRD Scheme Document<br /></b><a class="external-link" href="http://copyright.gov.in/Documents/scheme.pdf">The Scheme document of MHRD</a> is comprehensive document which consists of guidelines regarding Intellectual Property Education, Research and Public Outreach. It talks about a list of objectives, purposes, conditions and eligibility criteria for a University to ensure in order to implement IPERPO in a truest sense. This document provides the procedural as well as qualifying conditions for an Institute to ensure or fulfil before applying for the MHRD grant. Some of these conditions include maintenance of utilization certificates, audit reports, expenditure statements and event information which would be open to access on demand by MDHR or Comptroller and Auditor General of India.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">A. Objectives <br />In order to fulfil the objectives mentioned in the scheme document, IIT, Kharagpur undertook following activities:<br />a. Conducting multiple workshops over the years to further the training of teachers as well as at a student level<br />b. Hosting numerous conclaves on the subject of IPR and their relation to business <br />c. Providing short term course on training of teachers in the field of IPR<br />d. Held various symposiums, seminars and conferences for the furtherance of IPR<br />e. Hosted various interactive platforms regarding IPR<br />f. Undertook research collaborations in IPR<br />B. Eligibility <br />IIT, Kharagpur is recognized by the University Grants Commission. Therefore, it fulfils the eligibility criteria mentioned in the scheme document.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Financial Analysis<br /></b>The University has not provided documents regarding any financial analysis.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/mhrd-ipr-chair-series-information-received-from-iit-kharagpur'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/mhrd-ipr-chair-series-information-received-from-iit-kharagpur</a>
</p>
No publishernehaaIntellectual Property RightsAccess to Knowledge2016-05-15T06:19:57ZBlog Entry