Delhi High Court Creates Intellectual Property Division To Deal Exclusively With Intellectual Property Cases

BACKGROUND

• The Tribunals Reforms (Rationalisation and Conditions of Service) Ordinance, 2021 was enacted by the President and notified on 4th April 2021.
• The ordinance amended various acts relating to the protection of Intellectual Property Rights.
• The ordinance led to the abolishment of various Boards/Appellate Tribunals which dealt with cases related to IPR.
• The power to deal with the suits pending before the abolished Boards/Appellate Tribunals was vested in the Delhi High Court.

EFFECT ON THE HIGH COURT

• Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) got abolished which dealt with appeals from IP offices and also matters of revocation of Trade Marks, Patents, etc.
• IPAB had several pending cases and around 3000 cases were transferred to the Delhi High Court.
• In addition to these extra cases, the High Court is already burdened with various suits related to IPR such as Infringement of Trade Marks, Copyrights, Patents, Writ Petitions, Revision petitions arising from IPR suits in other courts.

MEASURES

• To deal with the increased quantum of cases, the Chief Justice of High Court of Delhi, Justice D.N. Patel set up a committee comprising of Justice Prathiba M. Singh and Justice Sanjeev Narula to look into IPR and non-IPR suits before the Court.
• Based on the recommendations of the committee, the Chief Justice directed the creation of the Intellectual Property Division (IPD) to deal with all the matters relating to Intellectual Property Rights.
• IPD benches will be notified by the Chief Justice from time to time and exclusive benches will also be constituted.
• The Court is also in the process to make comprehensive Rules for IPD.

SCOPE OF IPD

• IPD will deal with all the matters relating to Intellectual Property Rights.
• It will deal with original proceedings as well as Writ Petitions (Civil), CMM, RFA, FAO relating to Intellectual Property Rights disputes.
• Similar IPD Courts and Benches already exist in UK, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, China, etc.,

What do you think about this decision of the Delhi High Court? Will it help in reducing the burden on the court?