Empirical Analysis of Indian Patent Cases Post-2005

Abstract

Can we say today that India has woken up to patent protection and patent litigation or do we still have a long way to go? Have our courts become proactive in taking up patent cases and deciding them on merits or are they summarily decided? And in how many cases is there a substantial discussion on the technology and science involved in the patent and how many are decided on procedural matters of the patent law? And many more questions on similar lines arise when we look at the patent cases that come up before courts today and look back at the past decades for comparison. However the bright side of things is that our patent procedural law which has been evolving and can be said to have become a lot more robust than before and at the same time meeting India’s obligations towards TRIPS agreement. The most significant recent amendment to our Indian Patent Act, 1970 has been the 2005 Amendments. In this paper the author has tried to bring out an empirical study of the cases that have been brought before the courts - High Courts, Supreme Court and the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) - keeping 2005 as the benchmark owing to the changes brought about by the amendment and in general changes taking place with more awareness of IP rights.