Need of specialized intellectual property courts in India
Introduction
India publicly acknowledged the importance of safeguarding and upholding intellectual property rights by signing the World Trade Organization agreement on trade-related aspects of those rights. The goal of trips, the most comprehensive global agreement on intellectual property, is to safeguard the works of literary genius throughout the entire world.
United State of America Chamber 2022 Worldwide IP Index demonstrates that an efficient IP system inspires creative thought to develop novel ideas that affect society, yet India’s ranking in the international IP index is quite low due to an increase in pirate instances. India continues to rank 43rd out of 55 countries in the modern, digital world[i]. India loses up to 2.8 billion[ii] annually as a result of digital piracy, according to current estimates. All of this emphasises the necessity of protecting intellectual property in India and having efficient dispute resolution procedures.
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For establishing efficient dispute resolution mechanism there is hot debate in India whether there is need to establish specialized intellectual property courts. A specialised intellectual property court is an autonomous judicial institution that operates in the public interest with the main objective of resolving specific types of disputes involving intellectual property rights at the national level of India. However, it is not restricted to these conflicts and may also be tasked with resolving disagreements not related to intellectual property.
While looking into need for establishing specialized intellectual property courts in India we need to know what is the current disputes resolution mechanism in India for dealing matters related to intellectual property disputes. India has a three-tiered conflict resolution system for IP disputes, with the intellectual property offices leading the way in handling IP issues, the intellectual property appellate board at level two considering appeals, and the court of law at level three.
The Tribunal Reforms Ordinance of 2021 by the government eliminated the Intellectual Property Appeals Board (IPAB), which was the exclusive authority for hearing appeals against rulings involving intellectual property rights[iii]. Currently, the High Court is filling the shoes of the IPAB. Around 300 pending cases of IP was transferred to Delhi High Court and because of the dissolution of IPAB courts got burdened with the IP disputes. For solving this problem, Delhi high court becomes the first high court in India to establish the separate IP division for which will deal with IP disputes. However time will tell whether the step of Delhi court is in right direction or not.
Coming to our article need to establishing specialized intellectual property courts in India we should explore the advantages and disadvantages of establishing the intellectual property courts in India.
Advantages
By establishing the specialized IP courts in India, we are enhancing the quality of judiciary to deal with the matters relating to Intellectual property rights because specialized court judges will able to adjudicate the IP matters more efficiently as compared to judges of normal courts.
The second argument is that specialised IP courts can speed up and make processes less expensive. Corporate houses will be drawn to this, especially litigants who don’t want to wait around for a long period to get their case resolved.
Another justification is that specialised IP courts will be better equipped to handle the most recent advancements in IP law and be able to adapt swiftly. According to the theory that normal courts may be less effective in handling IP problems due to the technical intricacy of the dispute, the experience of the court is to the advantage. However, judges of specialised courts will need to stay current in order to make the most of this advantage. By looking into the establishment of specialized IP courts in India to deal with the IP matters foreign companies will not hesitate to come to specialized courts for resolving the IP related disputes.
Specialized IP courts will be in a better position to make decisions quickly and decisively regarding IP issues. By submitting IP cases to a specialised IP court, fewer judges will decide on the cases, which will reduce conflicts between different jurisdictions.
Disadvantages
There will be obstacles in the way of justice. As a result of the centralization of IP courts, litigants will have to appear before a court that may not be accessible from their location due to the costs associated with centralization.
Another issue is that judges in specialised IP courts will not be in a better position to decide IPR-related cases if they are not knowledgeable about recent legal developments. There may be issues with IPR dispute resolution if an incompetent judge is selected. By offering judicial educational programmes to provide judges with adequate awareness of recent legal developments relating to IPR, we may do away with this problem.
There is a chance that India would establish specialist courts for intellectual property. Due to the restricted number of judges and attorneys who will interact with court judges, bias may develop. By developing a monitoring system, we can lower these dangers.
Conclusion
Specialized IP courts in China supported 638 injunctions and preservation cases in 2017 of various types, including 79 pre-litigation and 559 litigation cases[iv]. By taking the success of specialized IP courts in China into consideration and weighing the benefits of specialist IP courts, it can be said that the benefits exceed the drawbacks. Additionally, high courts and commercial courts are now overworked due to the disintegration of the intellectual property appellate board, so it is desirable to establish specialized intellectual property courts in India.
Author: Sahil Agrawal, A Student of Dharmashastra national law university, in case of any queries please contact/write back to us at support@ipandlegalfilings.com or IP & Legal Filing.
[i] https://www.uschamber.com/intellectual-property/2022-international-ip-index
[ii] https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/voices/digital-piracy-jeopardises-indias-flourishing-creative-economy/
[iii] https://www.indiacode.nic.in/
[iv] https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=365fea3e-d682-4b63-822d-d7c9f0959b5d
