Delhi High Court’s IP Division Has Brought In Efficiency, 600 Out Of 2000 IPAB Cases Disposed Of In A Year: Justice Prathiba M Singh

Justice Prathiba M Singh on Wednesday said that Delhi High Court’s dedicated intellectual property division has brought in efficiency and that 600 cases out of 2000 cases received from Intellectual Property Appellate Tribunal (IPAB) have been disposed of in one year.

The judge was speaking at an event organized by the Delhi High Court on the occasion of World Intellectual Property Day. Justice Singh presented the report titled “One year of the IP Division”.

The Delhi High Court’s IP division was constituted in July 2021 to streamline and comprehensively review how a large quantum of IPR cases should be dealt with. Presently, the court has three exclusive benches dealing with IPR cases.

Stating that the IP division has provided the structure for intellectual property adjudication in the country, Justice Singh said:.

“More than 2000 cases were received from the IPAB. When the IPAB was abolished, at least I personally thought that we were all in a crisis. But it's because of the leadership of this court, including the Chief Justice at that time, the full court, all the judges that the Delhi High Court took this momentous decision to set up the IP division. The IPAB sent us more than 2000 cases, and I can say that almost 600 cases have already been disposed of by IP division.”

She added that the fresh filing before the IP division shows that as compared to previous years, the setting up of the separate division has resulted in approximately 650 fresh intellectual property suits being filed in one year in the High Court.

“More than 45% of the appeals which were received on patents have been disposed of, more than two thirds of all the original petitions of patents have been disposed of, out of 270 trademark petitions received more than 100 have been disposed of. In terms of suits writs and appeals, the Delhi High Court saw more than 1000 cases filed before it afresh this year and 750 plus cases were disposed of as a cumulative number,” the judge said.

Justice Singh also said that the Delhi High Court has a unique feature of having a dedicated IP Appellate Division which has resulted in the disposal of more than 35 appeals in one year.

“The interesting part is more than 700 cases being disposed of there are only 60 appeals filed, which is which is I think a very big stamp of acceptance to the decisions of the IP division,” she said.

The judge added: “All this has been possible due to the dedicated IP division which is brought in consistency, clarity coupled with efficiency to the cause itself.”

Justice Singh further said that establishment of the IP division has not merely seen high rate of disposal but the number of filing of cases has also increased, adding that litigation has become more robust.

“The biggest seal of approval to the Delhi High Court IP division was given by the joint parliamentary standing committee. When the IPAB was abolished, the committee in fact reported that the committee desires the abolishment of a prominent appellate body, which should be reconsidered in the wake of its pivotal role in adjudication. However, this report and recommendation was changed by the parliamentary committee. Now the parliamentary committee which finally recommend said this, it opines that establishing an IP division with dedicated IP benches, as done by the Delhi High Court in the wake of the abolition of the IPAB would ensure effective resolution on IP cases on a timely basis… So this has become the biggest seal of approval that the Delhi High Court got in respect of establishment of its IP division,” she said.

Justice Singh also said that vision for future is that at least 10 to 15 High Courts in India should have IP divisions and that a national panel of scientific advisors can be constituted which can be consulted by commercial courts and IP division judges. She added that such a panel can be consulted in the event any commercial judge faces a technical matter.

“Women in India have made strides but there are some points that we need to highlight and remember, so that we can solve them. More than 45 to 50% of women of graduates and science in India are women. More than 55% of post graduates in science are women. However, research papers would show that only 3% of the total peer reviewed journals are written by women, that means half the science graduates of our country are not being used in research and innovation,” she said.

Justice Singh added that there is a need for encouraging more women in innovation, research, scientific journals, peer reviewed articles so that more women innovators can file patents.

She also said that India is one of the countries which authored the International Guide to patent case management for judges released recently by WIPO.

“This patent case management guide has been authored by judges from 10 different jurisdictions. And India is one of the jurisdictions from where the patron guide has been authored. And this has happened under the leadership of Justice Madan B. Lokur, who was engaged by the Berkeley University and the authors were Justice Gautam Patel, Justice Manmohan Singh and myself along with a team of lawyers and researchers. This has put IP on the Global Map in terms of case management for judges, and it's a proper guide which is available online. This was launched just a week ago,” she said.

Justice Singh added: “It’s only by working hard and through dedication that we can fulfill our aspirations and the setting up of the IP division, the credit of this goes to the leadership of this court, the forward looking judges who have presided on it in the past, who are presiding on it currently, and who will preside over it in the future, as also the registry of this court, who has really made it possible. Even during the pandemic, when bags and bags of files were received from the IPAB, they took all the effort during the pandemic, to scan them, to put them in place and to list them before this Court.”