Madras High Court directs State to notify inauguration of Intellectual Property Division of High Court in a week

The Madras High Court recently directed the Tamil Nadu government to notify within a week, the creation and inauguration of the Intellectual Property Division (IPD) at the High Court. .In an order passed on February 14, a bench of Acting Chief Justice T Raja and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy directed the State to report compliance on the above direction by February 22.The Court was hearing a plea filed by a private firm, M/s Galatea Limited, seeking a direction to the High Court Registrar General to consider its representation made in July 2022, to frame and implement appropriate rules to transfer pending cases from the erstwhile Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB), Chennai to the High Court, and to list its case that had been pending hearing at IPAB, before the High Court. IPD is a specialised division was set up to exclusively adjudicate matters pertaining to Intellectual property, following the the Tribunals Reforms (Rationalisation and Conditions of Service) Ordinance, 2021 that abolished the IPAB in April 2021. Following such ordinance, all matters pending before the IPAB were to be transferred to the respective high courts.During the hearing on the plea filed by Galatea, the High Court Registrar General filed a status report before the High Court stating that the registry was awaiting the TN government's notification for the inauguration of the IPD. .In its status report, the registry told the Court that following the abolition of the IPAB, the then Chief Justice of the Madras High Court had constituted the IPD, which comprises of judges of the Court, and three advocates "co-opted from the Bar." It also said that the draft "Madras High Court Intellectual Property Rights Division Rules, including the nomenclature to be followed in respect of cases received from the IPAB, and cases filed before the Madras High Court, and also the court fees applicable, had already been framed and approved by the full court of the High Court on July 7, 2022.The registry further said that in October 2022, it had urged the State to notify the creation and the inauguration of the IPD at Madras High Court, and that it had "constantly " been following up with the State on the same. However, the TN government was yet to issue the notification, it said. The State government pleader then sought two weeks from the Court to remind the government to issue the notification. The High Court, however, noted that the State had been sitting on the issue for months without any justification and during such time, litigants were left "remediless" despite the IPD having already been created. "The delay in issuance of notification by the State Government is leaving the aggrieved persons in the lurch, inasmuch as despite availability of a remedy before the Madras High Court, they are unable to pursue their remedy in the absence of the notification. When the Madras High Court on the administrative side had approved the Rules and resolved to start the Intellectual Property Division and forwarded the same to the State Government way back on 26.10.2022 for issuance of notification, we do not find any justification on the part of the State Government in not issuing such notification expeditiously," the High Court said. Hence, it directed that the notification for inauguration be issued within a week."Considering the fact that litigants intending to pursue disputes pertaining to intellectual property are left remediless for a long time after the abolition of the Intellectual Property Appellate Board, we grant a week's time to the State Government to issue notification for the inauguration of the Intellectual Property Division," the Court said. Advocate Fakkir Mohideen appeared for the Madras High Court Registrar General. State Government Pleader P Muthukumar appeared for the TN government. ORTIS Law Offices, through Sandeep Grover (Partner), Vara Gaur (Principal Associate) and Swati Mitta (Senior Associate) represented Galatea Ltd..[Read Order]