During last week’s Practice Work Shop (PWS) Session, Sunidhi Bansal, Associate, lead a discussion on the relationship between Intellectual Property Rights, Economic Development and Poverty Alleviation, with a specific focus on Geographical Indication and Traditional Knowledge. The session involved discussion on how local artisans and farmers could commercialize their traditional knowledge. The session saw some interesting points raised on how GIs could be further promoted as well as the practical downsides (if any) of IP protection in the area.

A ‘Legal Issues Seminar’ (LIS) was conducted by Sneha Tandon, Senior Associate, on whether celebrities are free to use/post photos of themselves clicked by photographers on social media. The seminar delved into the provisions of The Copyright Act, 1957 applicable to photographers, and their exclusive legal right as original creators to publish, reproduce, or sell their work. Even though there is a lack of reportable cases in India on paparazzi suing celebrities for unauthorized use of photos, the seminar touched upon the possible defences (including under fair use provisions and publicity rights) that may be available to celebrities. The session saw questions from the team on the overlap of paparazzi’s rights and publicity rights.

The presentation can be accessed here.

Last Friday, ALG Attorneys put their movie knowledge to the test in an elaborate movie quiz. From guessing movies by their “bad descriptions” to identifying untitled movie posters (check outone of those in the picture below), the teams engaged in several rounds of friendly but fierce competition to be crowned as ALG’s movie experts.

Interns – Yamini Gurjar (Final Year General IP Intern); MD Maaz Alam, Divya Sasidharan, Nandita, Yash Raj and Merlin Mary Zacharias (Pre-Final Year General IP Interns); and Surbhi Nautiyal (Pre-Final Year Patent Intern) have successfully completed their Internship at ALG. At the end of their internship, they obliged us with their thoughts and ideas during the Sharing of Reflections (SoR) sessions. Their presence enriched the firm while they interned here. We wish them all the best in their future endeavours.

Interns Prajjwal Kushwaha (Final Year) and Shubhank Suman, Sirisha Prasad, Sai Ruchitha, Chetna Singh, Avni Sharma, Vishwa Patel and Ayushi Suman (Pre-Final Year) have commenced their General IP Internship with the firm’s law practice.

We hope their stay in the firm during the 4 week period of their internship will be mutually enriching and that the firm and they will learn exciting things from each other!