Dr. Arul George Scaria

Education

• LL.B., Mahatma Gandhi University, Kerala, India – 1999-2004
• LL.M., (IPR), NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad, India – 2004-06
• Ph.D., International Max Planck Research School for Competition and Innovation (A joint Ph.D. programme of the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition and the Ludwig Maximilians Universität, Munich, Germany) – 2008-11

Profile

Arul is a legal scholar with a wealth of expertise in intellectual property and competition law. He teaches, researches, and writes on issues at the intersection of law, science, and technology. He received the IMPRS-CI scholarship for his doctoral research at the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition and he was awarded doctoral degree with ‘summa cum laude’, the highest recognition for doctoral dissertation in Germany. With a career that has spanned academia, research, and legal practice, Arul brings a unique perspective to his teaching and research.

He is an affiliate faculty of the CopyrightX and PatentX courses offered by Harvard Law School. He has previously worked as Co-Director of the Centre for Innovation, Intellectual Property, and Competition (CIIPC) and Associate Professor at NLU Delhi; he was a Post-doctoral researcher at UCL, Belgium, and a CSIR-NIF Fellow at the National Innovation Foundation (NIF), India. He has also practiced law in trial courts and the Kerala High Court.

His expertise is highlighted through his numerous publications, including two sole-author books. He has also presented his works in various international forums including World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO). He was also the first academic to be appointed as an independent expert by the IP Division of the Delhi High Court and he has submitted a comprehensive report to the court on the interpretation of Sec. 52(1)(za) of the Copyright Act 1957.

Policy Contributions

Arul has served as Co-Chair of the Thematic Group on Access to Knowledge and Resources, constituted by the Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India and the Department of Science and Technology (DST), for drafting the Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy 2020. He was also a part of the advisory committee on copyright license issues for the Open E- textbooks Project of the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), India.

Research

Arul has been a lead researcher in different research projects, including an UNESCO funded project on challenges and opportunities for open science in four South Asian countries. His post-doctoral research focused on the issue of open access to large scale research data. He is currently working on different projects at the interface of law, science and technology, including a collaborative multidisciplinary project on algorithmic bias in decision making.

Publications

Arul has two single authored books to his credit – Piracy in the Indian Film Industry: Copyright and Cultural Consonance (Cambridge University Press, 2014) and Ambush Marketing: Game within a Game (Oxford University Press, 2008). He has also contributed to different international journals and books by drawing from his research.

Selected Publications:

Books (Sole author):

• Piracy in the Indian Film Industry: Copyright and Cultural Consonance (Cambridge University Press, 2014)
• Ambush Marketing- Game Within A Game (Oxford University Press, 2008)

Articles and Book Chapters:  

• Arul George Scaria, ‘The Ilaiyaraaja Copyright Dispute Points to Issues Lyricists, Music Composers Face in India’ (The Wire, 04 June 2024).
• Arul George Scaria, ‘International Exhaustion of Trademark Rights in India’ in Kung-Chung Liu (ed), Annotated Leading Trademark Cases in Major Asian Jurisdictions (Routledge, 2019)Arul George Scaria and Shreyashi Ray, ‘Knowledge Sharing and the Sharing Economy in India’ in Kung-Chung Liu and Uday Racherla (eds), Innovation, Economic Development, and Intellectual Property in India and China (Springer, 2019).
• Arul George Scaria and Kavya Susan Mammen, ‘Non-Traditional Marks on Pharmaceutical Products: Non-Traditional Barriers to Access to Medicine?’ in Irene Calboli and Martin Senftleben (eds), The Protection of Non-Traditional Trademarks (Oxford University Press, 2018).
• Arul George Scaria and Mathews George, ‘Copyright and Typefaces’ in Enrico Bonadio and Nicola Lucchi (eds), Non-Conventional Copyright (Edward Elgar, 2018).
• Arul George Scaria and Rishika Rangarajan, ‘Fine-tuning the Intellectual Property Approaches to Fostering Open Science: Some Insights from India’, WIPO Journal, 2016, Vol. 8, Issue 1, 109.
• Arul George Scaria, ‘Converging Online and Class-Room Methods: A Promising Mode of Knowledge Sharing in Digital Age?’, Journal of the National Law University Delhi, 2016, Vol. 3, Issue 1, 93.
• Arul George Scaria, ‘Online Piracy of Indian Movies: Is the Film Industry Firing at the Wrong Target? ’, Michigan State Law Review, 2013, Vol. 21, Issue 3, 647.
• Arul George Scaria, ‘Does India Need Digital Rights Management Provisions or Better Digital Management Strategies?’, Journal of Intellectual Property Rights, 2012, Vol. 17, 463.
• Arul George Scaria, ‘India Heading Towards a Major Copyright Overhaul’, GRUR Int., 2010, Issue 8-9, 663.

Reports:

• Arul George Scaria, Reading Sec. 52(1)(za) of the Copyright Act 1957 (Report submitted as the Independent Expert appointed by the Delhi High Court in Phonographic Performance Limited v. Lookpart Exhibitions and Events Private Limited)
• Arul George Scaria et al., Open & Inclusive: Reimagining Science in the Global South (a report prepared for UNESCO)
• Arul George Scaria and Shreyashi Ray, Open Science India Report (pre-print), https://osf.io/th97c/
• Arul George Scaria, Arianna Broggiato and Tom Dedeurwaerdere, Report on the IP Model Agreements for Pre-competitive Access to Microbial Genomic Research Databases (February 2014), Deliverable 8.4 of EU FP7 Project – Micro B3: Marine Microbial Biodiversity, Bioinformatics and Biotechnology.
• Arul George Scaria, Arianna Broggiato and Tom Dedeurwaerdere, IP Model Agreements for Pre-Competitive Access to Large-Scale Microbial Genomic Research Databases (January 2013), Deliverable 8.2 of EU FP7 Project – Micro B3: Marine Microbial Biodiversity, Bioinformatics and Biotechnology.

Others (Op-eds/ blogposts/ book reviews/ case notes):

• ‘Where Credit Isn’t Due’, Indian Express (April 2, 2019), available at https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/javed-akhtar-lyrics-pm-narendra-modi-film-vivek-oberoi-5653582/.
• ‘Draft E-Commerce Policy: A 101 Guide to Decimating Digital Competition’, BloombergQuint (March 14, 2019), available at https://www.bloombergquint.com/opinion/draft-e-commerce-policy-a-101-guide-to-decimating-digital-competition.
• (with Satheesh Menon and Shreyashi Ray), ‘Survey Findings Suggest Both Individuals and Institutions Can Do More to Promote Open Science Practices in India’, LSE Impact Blog (August 16, 2017), available at http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2017/08/16/survey-findings-suggest-both-individuals-and-institutions-can-do-more-to-promote-open-science-practices-in-india/.
• (with Anubha Sinha), ‘RCEP IP Chapter: A Serious Threat to Access to Knowledge/ Cultural Goods?’, Livelaw (July 27, 2017), available at: http://www.livelaw.in/rcep-ip-chapter-serious-threat-access-knowledge-cultural-goods/
• ‘Bias in Industry Funded Research: A Problem of Funding Source or Lack of Openness in Research?’ SPICYIP (November 5, 2016), available at https://spicyip.com/2016/11/bias-in-industry-funded-research-a-problem-of-funding-source-or-lack-of-openness-in-research.html
• ‘Delhi University Photocopy Shop Judgement: A Landmark in the Access to Knowledge Movement In India’, Livelaw (September 24, 2016), available at http://www.livelaw.in/delhi-university-photocopy-shop-judgement-landmark-access-knowledge-movement-india/.
• ‘Shouldn’t we liberate laws from the clutches of copyright law?’ SPICYIP (March 25, 2015), available at http://spicyip.com/2015/03/guest-post-shouldnt-we-liberate-laws-from-the-clutches-of-copyright-law.html.
• Arul George Scaria, ‘What Makes an Edited Book of Published Articles an Invaluable Asset?’, Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice, 2014, Vol. 9(6), 531.
• Arul George Scaria, ‘Schweik, Charles M. and Robert C. English (2012). Internet Success: A Study of Open-Source Software Commons. Cambridge (MA): The MIT Press’, International Journal of the Commons (http://www.thecommonsjournal.org/index.php/ijc/issue/view/13).
• ‘Lufthansa Flies High with the Competition Commission of India Order’, GRUR Int. 2011, Issue 2, 197.
• ‘A New Discussion Paper on Compulsory Licensing’, GRUR Int. 2011, Issue 1, 90.
• Arul George Scaria, ‘A Scholarly Attempt to Identify Privacy’, Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice, 2010, Vol. 5(1), 65.
• ‘Supreme Court Paves Way for a Smoother Functioning of the Competition Commission in India’, GRUR Int. 2010, Issue 11, 1014.
• ‘High Court of Delhi entscheidet zur Rolle von Patenten im arzneimittelrechtlichen Genehmigungsverfahren’, GRUR Int. 2009, Issue 10, 880.

For updated list of publications, click here.