Patent Litigation Trend in India

Abstract

Patent Litigation is the 'King' of Litigation, it is generally perceived; but the situation is not so true with India. Recently, the study of patent litigation has been receiving increasing attention. The literature has addressed both economic questions about the patents and litigation, as well as managerial question about patents use. Recently some Empirical studies were published relating to actual pattern and trends of patent litigation in U.S.A. and other countries. However, there is no literature available which addresses the position, actual pattern and trends of patent litigation in India. The current paper seeks to fill this 'descriptive' lacuna. The present Empirical research on patent litigation makes use of two basic sources of data, each demonstrating a different aspect of patent litigation and each with particular strength and weaknesses: written opinion in patent cases available through law journals like All India Reporter (AIR), Patent and Trademarks Cases (PTC) and Intellectual Property Law Reporter (IPLR), these gives information on all written opinions but, naturally, cannot provide information about cases resolved through other mechanisms) and the data of number of Patent Application filed, number of Patents Granted and number of Cases Litigated published in Official Journal of the Patent office. This data gathered has been used to answer certain central questions thereby examining the Patent litigation in India in greater depth and closer details.