Timely Disposal of IPR cases : Supreme Court seeks Report from Delhi HC

Perturbed by the time taken for cases involving Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) to be finally disposed of, a Supreme Court Bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and Navin Sinha has sought a detailed report from the Registrar General of the Delhi High Court..This report, which is to be submitted by August 14, should contain the details of:.1) total number of pending IPR suits, divided into different categories, in the Delhi High Court;.2) the stage of each suit; and also the period for which injunction/interim orders held/holding the field in each of the such suits..The High Court’s Registrar General is also to indicate what, according to the Court, would be a reasonable way of ensuring the speedy disposal of the suits involving IPR, which are presently pending before it..The Supreme Court’s concern arose while deciding an appeal against an interim stay order of the High Court in the matter of Intex Technologies (India) Ltd & Anr. vs M/S Az Tech (India) & Anr. This order dated March 10 of this year, although an interim one, was “virtually a decision on merits of the suit”, the apex court said..The Bench wondered if such an exhaustive ruling was given because the interim order was supposed to hold the field for a long period of time, since there would be a considerable delay in the final disposal of the suit..The case is next listed for hearing on August 16, when the Court will consider the Registrar General’s report, as well as the specific issues of the case at hand..Read the order: