Claims related to human stem cells were being rejected by the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI) not so long ago. However, such institute, in a truly surprising and radical change on the subject, has indicated that adult stem cells can be considered perfectly patentable. The discovery of stem cells can be considered as one of the major breakthroughs in life sciences of the last decade. To appreciate their significance, it is worthy to briefly point out that stem cells have particular properties that allow them to differentiate into a variety of types of mature cells that constitute all vertebrate animals, including human beings. The ability of stem cells to divide into identical or different types of cells is considered a feature that, surprisingly, allows them to repair the vital tissues affected by deteriorating diseases like Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, Huntington's, diabetes. These cells are critical in the treatment of other diseases such as stroke, spinal co...

The United States Patent and Trademark Office [USPTO] has officially sent Palo Alto, California-based Facebook Inc. a Notice of Allowance in order to notify the social networking site that they are willing to grant a trademark over the word “Face.” All that Facebook has to do at this point is to pay an issue fee within the next tree months. The company also needs to file a Statement of Use as well as to demonstrate that it uses the word “face” on its own in business. Currently, the company uses “Facebook” only, which is a combination of Face and Book. We’ll see if Facebook can come up with all of the requirements on time to be granted official trademark over “face.”

The new movie of Sanjay Leela Bhansali is caught in clutches of Copyright violation just days before its release. A novelist named Dayanand Raajan has accused the writer of ‘Guzarish’ for violation of copyright of his unpublished novel. According to him, the movie has striking similarity with his novel. Allegedly, the hero of the movie as well as novel, get immobilized for life after an accident. The movie has shown the hero as a famous magician while the novel’s hero is a famous dancer. Both plots have a Goa based Christianity theme. Dayanand also said that, he had provided the copy of his novel to few people in Bollywood and the writer of Guzarish must have lifted his idea from there. Allegedly he has served a notice to the producers of Guzarish and no satisfactory reply is given, he will initiate the legal proceedings to get a stay order on release of the film.

Amitabh Bachchan is preparing up to file copyright of his voice. The cause of this step is the use of Amitabh alike voice in advertisement of a tobacco product. Amitabh has stated on his blog that copying his voice for their advertisement is highly unethical, especially when he does not smoke or propagate smoking or any kind of intoxicant. According to him, it is most disgusting to find someone conflagrating the law of the land and the law of ethics. Amitabh has remained one of the most popular copied actor of all time.

The Indian Patent Office (IPO) has today released the updated version of the Draft Manual of Patent Office Practice and Procedure which is available for download for comments/suggestions. http://www.patentoffice.nic.in/ipr/patent/Revised_DraftManual_PatentOffice_04November2010.pdf As per the IPO notification, the draft manual will be finalized by 31st December, 2010 by the Indian patent office based on any further comments/suggestions received on the revised draft manual. Comments/suggestions on the revised draft manual may be sent to sukhdeep.ipo@nic.in by 4th December, 2010.