• NATIONAL

Court upholds Roche plea on trademark infringement by Cipla

The Bombay High Court upheld the plea of Swiss Multinational Drug Company "Roche" for an injunction and restrained domestic generic drug maker "Cipla" from using the trademark Valcept for its generic version of an anti-infection drug valganciclovir. The court held that Cipla's tradename "Valcept" is confusingly similar to that of Roche's "CellCept" which is a patented medicine used in the prevention of organ rejection in patients receiving kidney, heart or liver transplants.

Arbitrator for Neos Interactive versus Chennai firm dispute

The Supreme Court appointed former Kerala Chief Justice, Justice Arvind Sawant as the arbitrator in the dispute between the Chennai Company Speech & Software Technologies (India) Pvt Ltd and Neos Interactive Ltd of London. The dispute between the parties arose on account of differences on the execution of the services agreement of 2006. The Supreme Court held that the agreement with the arbitration clause was active and there was an arbitrable dispute between the parties.

Judgement by National Consumer Commission set aside

The Supreme Court set aside the judgment of the National Consumer Commission in the dispute between Punj Lloyd Ltd and Corporate Risks India Ltd, an insurance brokerage company. The Commission had dismissed the complaint before even issuing notice to the parties ruling that the case involved complicated and disputed questions and as such, they should be decided by a civil court. On appeal, the Supreme Court said that the commission was not justified in rejecting the complaint merely by stating that the complicated nature of facts and law did not warrant any decision on its part before even issuing notice to the opposite party.

Entitlement of back wages of reinstated employees

The Supreme Court in the case of Kanpur Electricity Supply Co Ltd vs Shamim Mirza held that employees who get reinstated following an order of the industrial court do not necessarily become entitled to payment of full or partial back wages. In this case, certain cashiers employed at the sub-stations of the electricity company were terminated after two years. Thereafter, the labour court ordered their reinstatement with full back wages. The company appealed to the Supreme Court which upheld the order of reinstatement, but ruled that the reinstated employees were not entitled to back wages.

Attachment of retirement benefits of a guarantor

A creditor bank cannot attach the fixed deposits of a guarantor who had received the money from his pension, gratuity and other retiral benefits, the Supreme Court ruled in the case of Radhey Shyam vs Punjab National Bank. In this case, Radhey Shyam stood guarantee for another person to buy a motor vehicle. The amount was not repaid and the vehicle was not traceable. Therefore, the bank proceeded against the guarantor who had invested his retiral benefits in fixed deposits with the bank. The district court asked the bank to first sell the vehicle before proceeding against the guarantor whereas on n appeal, the High Court reversed that order. However, the Supreme Court upheld the order of the district court.

• INTERNATIONAL

US Supreme Court allows lawsuits over 'light' cigarettes

The U.S. Supreme Court allowed lawsuits to go forward against tobacco companies' for alleged deceptive marketing of "light" cigarettes. The Court said that smokers may use state consumer protection laws to sue cigarette makers for the way they promote "light" and "low tar" brands.

Court ruled in favour of NY Times in anthrax libel case

The US Supreme Court rejected a plea by a former Army scientist, Steven J. Hatfill, to revive his libel lawsuit against The New York Times for allegedly publishing columns falsely implicating him in the deadly 2001 anthrax attacks. The Court held that Hatfill being a public figure failed to prove that the newspaper columns were malicious.

Russia upper house gives final approval to presidential term extension amendments

The Upper House of Russian Parliament "Russia's Federation Council", gave final approval Monday to amendments to the Russian Constitution that would extend presidential terms from four to six years and terms for parliament members from four to five years.

New trial for "Chemical Ali"

An Iraqi court began a new trial for Ali Hassan al-Majid better known in the Western media as "Chemical Ali," of the Saddam Hussein regime in relation to the killing of around 5000 Kurds using poisonous gases. The relatives of the plaintiffs were allegedly gassed to death in the Kurdish village of Halabja.