On Monday the Chennai High Court accepted the government’s proposal that the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) hear the case without a technical member. This leaves only the chairman, Justice MHS Ansari and vice-chairman, ZS Negi.
The court ruled that the chairman could also serve as a technical expert.
Ranjit Shahani, vice-chairman and managing director of Novartis India, told MIP Week that Novartis was happy with the decision, saying “we wanted an independent and functioning board”.
Novartis had objected to the presence of technical expert S Chandrasekaran on the board as he was Controller General of Patents at the time the original Glivec patent application was rejected.
When Novartis tried to have Chandrasekaran replaced, IPAB argued that there was no alternative. Novartis then appealed the issue to the Chennai High Court.
Generic company Natco Pharma was the only company to oppose the government’s proposal to hear the case with a two person panel. Natco Pharma is one of the companies challenging the Glivec patent along with Cipla and Ranbaxy Laboratories.
“The absence of a technical member would have an adverse effect,” Manisha Singh Nair of Lex Orbis told MIP Week.
MHS Asari is a retired judge from Andhra Pradesh High Court who may, according to some observers, have heard some IP cases. Prior to his appointment on IPAB, ZS Negi was additional secretary to the government of India in the legislative department of the Ministry of Law, Justice and Legal Affairs. It is not thought that either have any direct experience in patent prosecution.
Although IPAB was established in 2003 the government only gave it the authority to hear patent cases after the appointment of Chandrasekaran in April this year.
Section 84 (2) of the Trade Marks Act requires each IPAB bench to have one technical and one judicial member. Section 116 (2) of the Patents Act states that a technical member for patent cases must have acted as a Patent Controller for at least five years or functioned as a registered patent agent for at least 10, or have 10 years proven experience in registering patents and designs.
No date has yet been set for when IPAB will hear the appeal.
