Delhi High Court Comes Up With The Intellectual Property Division (IPD) For Handling IP Matters

• Published date: 03 August 2021
• Subject Matter: Intellectual Property, Copyright, Patent, Trademark
• Law Firm: Khurana and Khurana
• Author: Mr Saransh Chaturvedi

With the abolishment of various Boards and Appellate Tribunals by Tribunals Reforms (Rationalization and Conditions of Service) Ordinance, 2021, which was promulgated by the President of India and was notified on 4th April 2021, The Delhi High Court (DHC) has now established an Intellectual Property Division (IPD) to deal with matters related to Intellectual Property Rights (IPR).

The 2021 ordinance amended Acts namely - (i). Trade Marks Act, 1999, (ii). Protection of Plant Varieties & Farmers' Rights Act, 2001, (iii). Patents Act, 1970, (iv). Copyright Act, 1957, (v). Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999, (vi). Cinematograph Act, 1952, (vii). Customs Act, 1962, (viii). The Airports Authority of India Act, 1994, (ix). National Highways (Land and Traffic) Act, 2002, and (x). The Finance Act, 2017. The 2021 Ordinance amended these acts and abolished various Boards and Appellate Tribunals that existed under these statutes. Accordingly, with the abolishment of the boards and tribunals, the power to deal with all such pending matters has now been vested with the High Court. For the Intellectual Property cases, the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) dealt with appeals from the IP offices. Abolishing IPAB led to a substantial number of pending cases, which count to around 3000 cases including cases of revocation of Trade Marks, Patents, to be transferred to the High Court of Delhi, as per the official press statements.

In addition to the cases being transferred to the Delhi High Court, the court is already seized various categories of IPR matters namely suits relating to Infringement of Trade Marks, Copyrights, Patents, Writ Petitions, Revision petitions arising from IPR suits before the Commercial Courts, appeals from orders/judgments of the Commercial Courts concerning IPR suits, etc.

For an effective streamlining and review of a large influx of IPR cases in the Delhi High Court, a committee was constituted by Hon'ble the Chief Justice of High Court of Delhi, Justice D.N. Patel for deciding over this issue. The committee consists of Hon'ble Ms. Justice Prathiba M. Singh and Hon'ble Mr. Justice Sanjeev Narula. Based on their recommendations, Hon'ble the Chief Justice directed the creation of the Intellectual Property Division (IPD) at the DHC to deal with all matters related to Intellectual Property Rights.

Not only with the original proceedings but the IPD would be configured to also deal with the Writ Petitions...