The Most Important Things about IP Litigation

1. Things to know about IP Litigation Coming to IP litigation, the Indian judiciary is highly competent and progressive. Courts do not suffer from any type of bias and suits are decided solely based on the merits of each case and in light of the evidence led before the Courts. In the recent past, Indian Courts have broadly taken a balanced approach between rights of innovators and interests of the consumers in the market. Strong patents are given unwavering protection in India, irrespective of whether they belong to an Indian or foreign company. Similarly for trade marks, courts have been protective of coined and well-known marks. With enactment of the Commercial Courts Act in 2016, established Commercial Benches for civil suits (IP matters fall under their purview), which has helped in streamlining the IP litigation process further and assuring that matters are now being heard by IP savvy judges. several High Courts have

2. Further, Indian Courts are very proactive in IP enforcement matters and obtaining interim injunctions have been quite successful in India, thereby benefiting innovators/trade mark owners. Moreover, if the circumstances are compelling, the Court may grant an ex parte interim injunction on the first hearing itself or within a few days of filing the infringement suit. In appropriate cases and where prayed for, Indian Courts appoint Local Commissioners to conduct an investigation at the Defendant’s premises to ascertain the nature of infringement, extent of infringement and to preserve and protect evidence of infringement by making inventories, sealing and seizure of impugned goods etc. With respect to timing, for example, as per the extant practice of the High Court of Delhi, interim protection is granted in appropriate cases is 9-12 months even during the pendency of suit. A final verdict in a suit typically takes approximately 3-4 years to be pronounced. The above coupled with that fact that enforcement of IP rights in India is very cost effective and more economical than most other jurisdictions makes India an effective patent enforcement jurisdiction. We have seen this in the recent cases filed by innovators against Indian and Chinese

3. companies. We file on an average 40-50 lawsuits in a year which shows how actively IP owners enforce their rights in India. Cease and Desist is the preferred course of action at the first instance and if the infringers refuse to give up the offending use, lawsuit is filed before a Court of law having jurisdiction. On an average 70% of IP suits get settled at the preliminary injunction stage itself. Insofar as trademark and copyright litigation is concerned, in addition to the civil remedies, the statutes provide for criminal remedies as well. Civil remedies or criminal remedies may be availed of depending upon the facts and circumstances peculiar to a case. In certain cases, after initiating a criminal action and successfully conducting search and seizure operations, civil action may be filed subsequently to permanently restrain the infringer from using the mark/ copyright in question. Additionally, being a common law country, India does not mandate registration of a trade mark and rights to an unregistered mark may be protected through the common law tort of passing off (civil remedy). From our experience, civil remedies are most effective in enforcing Intellectual Property Rights as the Civil Court unlike the Magistrate’s Court (criminal action court) is empowered to provide the relief of

4. injunction (even at the interim stage) restraining defendant(s) from using the offending mark/ copyright/ patent/ design. Further, in the event the suit is finally decreed in favour of the plaintiff, defendant(s) would be permanently restrained from using the Intellectual Property right in question. In addition to this, in a civil suit a plaintiff may also claim damages from defendants for misuse of its Intellectual Property. Get Further Information- Address- Remfry House, Millennium Plaza, Sector 27, Near IFFCO Chowk Metro Station Opposite Huda metro station, Gurugram, Haryana 122009 Ph.No- 0124-2806100 Source: https://medium.com/@remfry.seo/things-to-know-about-ip-litigation-10cf 845ad824