Spicy IP founder Shamnad Basheer among worlds top 50 IP leaders

Shamnad Basheer, founder of the blog Spicy IP has been selected as one of the top 50 global IP leaders, who are shaping the future of intellectual property by the magazine, Managing Intellectual Property along with co-bloggers Prashant Reddy and Sumathi Chandrashekaran..Shamnad Basheer (pictured), founder of the blog Spicy IP has been selected as one of the top 50 global IP leaders, who are shaping the future of intellectual property by the magazine, Managing Intellectual Property along with co-bloggers Prashant Reddy and Sumathi Chandrashekaran..Spicy IP has been named in list of the top 5 blogs, including The Trademark Blog by Martin Schwimmer, Patently-O by Professor Dennis Crouch, IPKAT by Jeremy Phillips and Rewrite the Law by Mike Masnick..Basheer started Spicy IP in 2005 out of sheer boredom. The aim was to bring in transparency in IP systems and to create awareness. Spicy IP provides information on various IP laws and policy. The blog promotes IP education in India by reporting IP and innovation cases, news and other items of interest in an independent and objective manner. Both Prashanth and Sumanthi joined Spicy IP in 2007..Speaking to Bar & Bench on being recognized as one of the top 50 IP leaders in the world, Shamnad Basheer said, “This came as a big surprise to us. But perhaps, it is a vindication of the long and relentless transparency and anti corruption campaign that we’ve carried out against Indian IP offices for the last several years. This global recognition amongst the world’s top 50 IP leaders owes in large part to the brilliant work of my wonderful colleagues who have burnt many a midnight oil to analyse IP data and cases, investigate murky IP deals and expose the latest IP stories to readers in a manner that was direct, honest and courageous. Most importantly, we’ve attempted to get a wider cross section of the public interested in IP issues, so that they could also engage with these debates and contribute to macro level IP policy making”..It has been a constant struggle for Shamnad and his team to improve the quality of IP reporting, to fight corruption in the IP system by bringing transparency and to help create awareness of IP profession in the country..Talking about the challenges that he faced while bring changes in the IP system, Shamnad said, “As you know, Indian IP debates are considerably politicisied today, most notably around patents and access to medicines. We’ve tried in many ways to depoliticise these debates, reduce the emotional rhetoric around them and get people to engage more on the merits of these issues. As a result, we’ve been at the receiving end of both industry representatives as well as civil society activists. That is perhaps the price that one pays for neutrality and independence. We’ll however continue fighting the fight to help create a middle ground on IP issues, resuscitating them from an increasingly polarised and hostile IP world”..The blog has consistently campaigned for greater access to information, to increase transparency in Indian IP law and policy and had launched a public petition on the topic in 2009..Co-blogger Prashant has been using Right to Information requests to uncover what has been going on at two of India’s copyright collecting societies – IPRS and PPL. Prashant partially derives his passion for blogging from his utter dismay at the misreporting in the Indian press on most things related to IP. He desperately hopes that someday the Indian IP debates will not be based on mere rhetoric but pillars of reason..It is a great achievement for the Spicy IP team to be recognized as the one of the top 5 blogs in the world.