Justice Prathiba M Singh leads delegation at Judicial Symposium on Intellectual Property, Tokyo

A delegation comprising Delhi High Court Judge, Justice Prathiba M Singh with Advocates Pravin Anand, Hemant Singh, Saya Choudhary Kapur and Patent Attorney Rajiv Bhatnagar represented the country at a Judicial Symposium on Intellectual Property held in Tokyo in September 2019..The Symposium was organized by the Supreme Court of Japan along with the Intellectual Property High Court, Ministry of Justice, the Japan Patent Office and the Japan Federation of Bar Associations..Several countries participated in the Symposium. Five countries, including India, were specially invited for organizing a mock trial in order to demonstrate the intricacies of patent infringement trials in their respective countries..The Delhi High Court had the privilege of having been invited to participate in the said mock trial. The other four countries who participated in the mock trial were Australia, China, Japan, and Korea. The mock trials were presided over by sitting Judges of the respective countries..Justice Prathiba M Singh presided over the mock trial conducted by the Indian delegation..She began the mock trial by sharing a brief overview of the legal framework on patent litigation in India..“There are more than 600 district courts in the country and patent cases can be filed in the District Court in India. Metropolitan cities have High Courts which have original jurisdiction… However, what is interesting is, in a patent infringement action, if the defendant files a counterclaim to seek revocation of the patent then the case gets transferred to the High Court automatically. So because of that, all the patent decisions in the country are dealt with by the High Courts… However, if the defendant does not wish to seek revocation, the defendant always has the option of raising all the grounds of invalidity as defences”.She also informed the gathering about the Commerical Courts Act,2015, which was enacted to deal with commercial disputes in a time-bound manner..“Almost all intellectual property cases which are valued above USD 4,000 are commercial disputes. India enacted the Commercial Courts Act, 2015. This Act provides for very strict timelines in terms of pleadings .. judgments etc. It also provides for payment of heavy costs..We have a case management hearing.. and the Court has the power to pass summary judgments. In a large number of cases, we find summary judgments if the plaintiff does not insist on damages as one of the relief.. Upon oral arguments concluding, the judgment has to be delivered in 90 days.”.Justice Singh apprised the gathering of the concept of a case management hearing, appointment of the local commissioner, appointment of scientific advisor as well as the Delhi High Court Original Side Rules which recognize hot tub proceedings and confidentiality clubs..Lastly, she also spoke on the possible reliefs that a plaintiff may get..Watch the mock trial here [The mock trial begins at 5:22:02]: .https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SD5MdDMt7WI