Murali's Writeups...

  Case study of Madras High Court Judgement on the Requirements of Foreign Patent Filing Permission In the SELFDOT TECHNOLOGIES OPC PVT LTD v. Controller of Patent Chennai, the Hon’ble High Court of Madras speaking through Mr Justice Senthil Kumar Ramamurthy held on 28th November 2023 that the requirement of foreign filing permission under section 39 of the Patents Act is formal and procedural in nature and hence condonable. By its final order, the High Court directed the Madras Patent Office to receive afresh an application for Foreign Patent Filing permission and allow the same on appropriate terms.  Actually, the Patent Application in question is an application for a Patent of Addition . The original application was filed in the Indian Patent Office which was duly followed up by an American Patent through PCT route. The ostensible reason for having this requirement of Foreign Patent Permission is to enable the Union of India to issue secrecy directions under Section 35 of...

Nowadays, Indian social media particularly those sympathetic to the ruling establishment have been articulating stories against the Qatari government, after one of their courts (in a secret trial), found former Indian defense officers guilty of espionage on behalf of Israel. Mercifully, unlike the Kulbhushan Jadhav case, the families of the accused were intimated, and they also received Consular Access. However, the rest of the world does not know the specific charges against them or the contents of the judgment. Qatari law provides for statutory appeal against the Judgement. The appellate proceedings have been initiated with sufficient inputs from the Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Indian social media reports recently gloated about the fact that the IT infrastructure of the Qatari government suffered a serious cyber-attack. Some of these posts indicated that this demonstrates the increasing Indian clout in global affairs. I am of the opinion that the Indian general public react...

The recent Hamas attacks on Israeli civilian targets and the taking of women and children as hostages as a protest to Israeli interference in the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex has added one more armed conflict situation, constituting a serious breach of World Peace. It is true that by the end of the 19th century, the Israel population did not even have 2% of the Jewish population. It was essentially a Palestinian territory. Palestine then was a part of the Ottoman Empire. After the First World War, Britain took over the administration of Palestine, encouraged Jewish settlements, and aided the creation of a Jewish state. Between the First and Second World Wars, Jews around the world gravitated to Palestine (as it was known then) and started acquiring properties aggressively. We have to recognize that prior to World War 2, there was no right to self-determination. The purchase of properties was at par with military conquests, and both were legal. After the Kellogg-Briand Pact and the subseque...

    Disclosure of Prejudice One of my sons has just become a Canadian citizen, and another son is in the race for the H1B/green card process. I have applied for a visa to visit these countries. I got interested in International Relations due to my participation in Jessup Moot Court. Thereafter, I pursued my Master's Degree in International Law from the Department of Legal Studies, University of Madras. I have been an active participant in the Justice delivery mechanisms within the territories of India. I have been teaching, blogging, and experimenting in different areas of Justice administration. Hence, I am upset with the recent happenings in Canada following the murder of Late Nijjar on Canadian soil, allegedly with the connivance of Indian Intelligence Agencies; these have driven a big wedge between India and Canada. Canada and India have many things in common; besides being democracies and members of the Commonwealth of Nations. Canada became a fairly independent...

Recently Mr Donald J Trump appeared as the Accused (Opposite Party) in a contempt trial. Some of his supporters who stormed the Capitol building after he lost the popular as well as the electoral vote, have started serving their sentences. The accused police officer Thomas Lane in the infamous ‘Black Lives Matter’ trial had been convicted and started serving his sentence. Whereas, we really do not know when the cases lodged against the protesters in the Citizenship Amendment Act will conclude. In our neighbourhood, Imran Khan has already been convicted for violating the Official Secrets Act. Most likely he will face another conviction in the Toshakhana cases. In India, many of the opposition leaders today are facing serious financial fraud prosecutions. But, none of those who are in the camp of ruling dispensations are bothered too much about the pendency of criminal cases against them, because they have been moving at (satisfactorily) a snail's pace. The recent conviction of Rah...

Disclaimers/Mandatory disclosure: 1. The Author is a one-time hater of Imran Khan, then became an admirer, and is now clueless about Imran Khan’s status. 2. The Author had voted for BJP in the Parliamentary elections and had voted for other parties in State Assembly elections. 3. The Author has not yet decided on his voting preference for the 2024 elections. In August 2018, I wrote a blog titled “ Imran Khan Leads Pakistan, who should lead India ?” 5 years have elapsed since then. I thought I would revisit the contemporary issues and my views 5 years ago. Hence, this blog. Thiruvalluvar, a great Tamil poet said that it is more satisfying to carry a spear with which you attempted to kill an elephant (unsuccessfully), rather than carrying an arrow with which you successfully killed a rabbit. When I look at the Indian subcontinental scenario, the wisdom of Thiruvalluvar squarely applies to Imran Khans' case. He became PM after he was a celebrity for a long time. He has been in politic...