The 1st Raj Anand Intellectual Property Moot Court Competition was held on the 29th August, 1998 at the Jacaranda Hall of the India Habitat Centre, to commemorate the 75th Anniversary celebrations of our firm. This Moot Court competition was unique in that this was the first time that an exclusively intellectual property Moot Court competition was held in the country. The choice of commemorating our 75th Anniversary celebrations in this unique manner was largely on account of our firm's constant efforts to encourage law students to evince an interest in the subject so that the intellectual property Bar would grow.

The competition was inaugurated by Hon'ble Mr. Justice B N Kirpal of the Supreme Court of India. The competition featured an array of six teams drawn from some of the top law schools in India.

The problem for the Moot Court was challenging and pertained to complex issues of copyright and constitutional law, a copy of which is annexed hereto as Annexure "A". A copy of the Rules and Regulations is annexed hereto as Annexure "B".

Each team submitted written submissions or "memorials" as they are called in Mooting parlance on behalf of both the petitioner as well as the respondents. On the 28th of August, 1998 the teams picked lots which determined the party for which the team would argue as also their order of appearance during the oral rounds. A complete list of the participating teams in order of their appearance is annexed hereto as Annexure "C".

Mr.Amarnath Sehgal, an artist of international renown, sculpted the trophy for the Competition.

The Judges for the competition were Justice H.L. Anand ,Retired judge of the High Court of Delhi , Mr. Stuart Adams, an Intellectual Property Attorney from United Kingdom and Prof. Mool Chand Sharma, Professor of Law, Delhi University.

The Moot Court was anchored by Mr. Vinod Surana, Secretary, International Law Students Association, Madras. Mr. Surana, apart from conducting the event was also present in the capacity of an independent observer. The programme commenced with a 'Kathak' performance by Ms. Shikha Khare, a dancer of international renown.

The moot court proceedings concluded at about 5.30 p.m. While the results were being tabulated, Mr. Fali S. Nariman, Senior Advocate, delivered the Valedictory Address in his own inimitable style, generously peppering his talk with humourous anecdotes. Mr. Nariman stressed on the importance of marshalling of facts, as an extremely important facet of advocacy.

The following are the results of the competition:

Best Team: ILS Law College, Pune.
Second Best Team: Kerala Law Academy, Trivandrum.
Best Speaker : Devdatt Kamat, ILS College, Pune.
Best Memorial Award : Faculty of Law, New Delhi.
Rouse & Co. International Award for the most innovative team: National Law School of India University, Bangalore.

Annexure "A"

PROBLEM FOR THE ANNUAL RAJ ANAND MOOT COURT COMPETITION ON INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW

In the year 2000, a common law country, by the name of NUJRANEZ, ( pronounced as "newness") is hosting a grand six month Exposition. NUJRANEZ is not a Berne Convention Country or a Universal Copyright Country, although it is a member of the WTO. Designers from 10 countries are invited by the Government of NUJRANEZ to design thematic areas on various themes.

Vurd, ( pronounced as "Word") a famous Designer from a civil law country DNANAJAR ( pronounced as "Nayanaya") having a long history and hundreds of tribal communities and indigenous people in preparing his theme "living with nature", contacts hundreds of artists, sculptors, musicians and performers so that their paintings, motifs, artifacts, musical compositions, performances and other contributions can be acquired and integrated into a composite work for a thematic area covering 50,000 sq. ft.

There are three group of contributors, namely :

GROUP 1 ARTISTS :

Those who have motifs, art works and other folklore material which is in public domain but yet belonging to a well defined community of DNANAJAR.

GROUP 2 ARTISTS :

Small artists who have created works, be their paintings, logos, art form, musical compositions, lyrics etc. and are, for an affordable sum of money, inclined to assign all rights to Vurd. They are very conscious, however, that their contributions should not be distorted; and

GROUP 3 ARTISTS :

Well-known artists including sculptors, musicians, lyricists and writers who do not intend to assign their rights but maybe willing to give exclusive licenses till the end of the six month Exposition. They are not, however, willing to give any form of electronic rights whether relating to video or the Internet. These artists enter into deeds which do not specify the period of license.

Vurd, along with the other designers, creates a grand work putting together all the composite elements. Under the contract, he was to create the design for a thematic area of 50,000 sq. ft. but during the designing, he is unable to control this factor and the design gets produced for an area of 70,000 sq. ft. The government of NUJRANEZ is unwilling to pay for the additional area and insists that the design be cut short.

Vurd expresses impossibility at which stage the government holds him liable for breach of contract. Vurd says that the art directors over him are at liberty to cut any area that they want but insists that in future if the design is to be reduced or increased, it should be with the supervision of Vurd. Accordingly, under the supervision of Vurd, the design area is cut short by the government.

The exposition is a big success. At the end of the exposition the Government of NUJRANEZ passes a law acquiring the entire thematic area created by Vurd. Vurd is, within two weeks of the date of the acquisition, to be paid ND 2 Million. At the same time the Government of NUJRANEZ places an advertisement in all the leading newspapers of the country inviting tenders from film producers to make a documentary on the thematic area created by Vurd. An Earnest Money Deposit (EMD) of ED 45,000/- is to be enclosed with the tender.

The Artists i.e. Group I, Group II and Group III form an Association of Artists(AA) and file a writ petition before the High Court of NUJRANEZ seeking a quashing of the order of acquisition as being violative of their rights.

Annexure "B"

ALL INDIA LEVEL MOOT COURT COMPETITION ON INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

RULES AND REGULATIONS

I. SUBJECT MATTER:

The moot is a purely Intellectual Property oriented Moot Court.

II. THE COMPETITION SHALL BE IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

III. ELIGIBILITY:

a. The competition is open for students who are interested in intellectual property and who belong to teams that have been invited.
b. The participants should be studying in the 3 year LLB. Program or the 5 year BA.LLB. Program.

IV. TEAM COMPOSITION:

a. The teams should consist of two speakers and one researcher and this number cannot be modified under any circumstances.
b. The researcher cannot be allowed to speak unless under special cases.

V. REGISTRATION:

a. The teams must finish registering by the 30th of April and if there are to be any changes in the team composition in terms of the members participating then the organisers must be informed by the 5th of August at the latest.
b. The registration form should be duly filled and returned to the organisers by the 30th of April.

VI. ROUNDS:

a. There will be one round of arguments only.
b. The teams will pick lots by midday on the 28th of August in order to decide which side they are arguing for.
c. The teams will be marked on their written and oral submissions together in order to finally determine their place.

VII. MEMORIALS:

The following requirements must be strictly followed for the purpose of the memorials and the teams will be penalised if they do not follow the same:

a. The teams have to prepare memorials for both the parties in the dispute.
b. Copies of the memorials are to reach the organisers by the 22nd of August, latest by 5.30 p.m.
c. Once the memorials are submitted then the teams will not be allowed to make any amendments to the same.
d. The memorials have to be submitted on typed A4 size paper, and the arguments cannot exceed 10 pages.
e. The memorial must contain:
  • i The table of contents.
  • ii The index of authorities.
  • iii The statement of jurisdiction.
  • iv The statement of facts
  • v The statement of issues.
  • vi The summary of arguments.
  • vii The arguments advanced.
  • viii The prayer.
f. The memorial has to contain a margin measuring half an inch on all sides of the paper.
g. The page numbering should be on the top right side of each page.
h. The memorial should have a maximum no. of 20 pages.
i. The cover page of the memorial has to have the following:
  • Title stating that the same is a brief of the appellants or the respondent, as the case maybe.
  • The cause of action
  • The cause title.
j. In order to ensure objectivity, the teams will be allotted a team number that would be printed on the top right side of the cover page.

VIII. ORAL ROUND:

a. Each team will get a total of 45 minutes between both the speakers to present their case.
b. The division of time is at the discretion of the team members, subject to a maximum of 30 minutes for each speaker.
c. The oral arguments must be confined to the issues presented in the memorials.
d. Rebuttals and surbuttals shall be at the sole discretion of the court.
e. The researcher may sit with the speakers at the time of the orals.

IX. SCOUTING:

The teams will not be allowed to attend the orals of any other team unless they have finished their own orals.

X. SCORING:

A. ORALS:

Each of the categories presented below will carry a maximum of 20 marks:

a. Quality of arguments.
b. Ability to cite precedents.
c. keeping within the time limit including the extra time allotted by the judges as a part of their discretion.
d. Rebuttals and surbuttals.
e. Ability to cite precedents and miscellaneous matters.

B. WRITTEN SUBMISSIONS (MEMORIALS)

a. The following two will carry 25 marks each:
  • Written arguments presented in the memorial
  • Overall structure of the arguments.
b. A maximum of 5 marks will be deducted for noncompliance with VII (e), (f), (g) and (j).
c. A maximum of 10 marks will be deducted for noncompliance with VII (i).
d. Consequently a maximum of 5 marks are to be given for the categories listed in b. above and a maximum of 10 marks for the category listed in (c ) above.
e. 30 marks will be allotted for overall presentation of the written and oral and the general professional conduct of the team.

XI. AWARDS:

a. Best speaker award- a cash prize of Rs. 5,500/- only.
b. Best Memorial award- a cash prize of Rs. 5,500/- only.
c. Best Team award is a Rolling Trophy and a cash prize of Rs.25,000/- only.
d. Second best team will be given a cash prize of Rs.11,000/- only.

XII. THE DECISION OF THE JUDGES IS FINAL.

XIII. ANY CLARIFICATIONS FOR THE COMPETITION TO BE SOUGHT AT:

E-mail : Click Contact Link 
Fax no.:011-4624243,4642060
Phone no.:4645076/78,4615833
Postal address:B-41 Nizamuddin (E), New Delhi-100013.

Annxure "C"

LIST OF PARTICIPATING TEAMS
Team          College             Speaker No. 1          Speaker No. 2


Team No.1    Delhi Law Faculty     Aditya Narayan Das     Keshav Singh Dhakad

Team No.2    ILS Law College       Dev Dutt Kamath        Siddhartha Dutta

Team No.3    Kerala Law Academy    Lakshmidevi            Niyatha Srinivasa
                                  Somanthi 

Team No.4    Govt. Law College,    Vicky Singh            Padmalakshmi Iyenger
             Mumbai 

Team No.5    National Law School,  Anand Damodaran        Thomas Sebastian
             Bangalore 

Team No.6    Ambedkar Law College, K Poornima             Joseph George
             Chennai               Jayashree              Mayiladumpara

This article is correct to the best of our knowledge as at the time of its publication. However, it is written as a general guide. Therefore specialist advice should be always be sort.

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         (91 11) 4641749; (91 11) 4645067; (91 11) 4645078
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