The hue and cry for abolition of IPAB

 The hue and cry for abolition of IPAB 

The recent promulgation of The Tribunals Reforms (Rationalisation and Conditions of Service) Ordinance, 2021 has brought an end to the Intellectual Property Appellate Board. The Ordinance amends most of the Intellectual Property Laws that included Trademarks Act, Patents Act, Copyright Act, Geographical Indication Act and Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers Rights Act as well as other Acts such as Finance Act, Customs Act, Cinematograph Act etc. In total there are ten such Acts that are included in which the concerned Appellate Tribunals are abolished. 

As of now the High Court and Commercial courts are the appellate body as prescribed under the Ordinance. Therefore there arises a need to know the role of the Commercial Courts  which at present looks after the matters pertaining to Intellectual Property Rights. Section 3 of The Commercial Courts Act, 2015 refers about the constitution of the Commercial Courts. The state government after consultation with its concerned High Court shall constitute Commercial Courts at District Level as per the necessity of the jurisdiction and powers and also specify the pecuniary jurisdiction. The pecuniary jurisdiction shall not be less than 3 lakhs rupees and also not beyond the jurisdiction of the District Courts.  

So far IPAB was formed for the purpose to expedite the process of disposal of orders and appeal mainly for Trademark rights and Geographical Indication. Also another paramount function of the IPAB was to look into transferred cases pertaining to rectification of register pending before any High Court either from the stage it was or de novo. There are also marvelous track records for IPAB since its establishment for its speedy disposal of the orders and even though it had acquired a distinct nature, the present scenario is that there was no discussion with IP legal industry as the Ordinance was passed with special powers conferred in Article 123 of clause (1) by the President. 

Thus, had there been discussion with IP Legal industry may be there might have been certain consideration before the IPAB to be abolished and what is in the queue is that the High Courts will be overburdened with already piled up backlog cases. It has been seen that since IPAB has been included in the Tribunal Reforms , some of the associations of IP Legal Indutry have written a Letter to the concerned Ministries to remove IPAB. There are Alternate Dispute Resolution like Mediation and Arbitration for out of the court settlement as remedial measures for those who think Court proceeding are expensive and time consuming. These days Courts are also advising the parties to consider the out of court of settlement and include the Arbitration clause in the agreements and contracts for amicable settlement of disputes. 

Intellectual Property Rights and Laws are the backbone of a country and a countries economy is always measured with the number of Patents filed. Therefore if the basic proceedings, disposal of disputes are not streamlined then the whole system is in peril. The manufacturing industries will be more affected due to this if the system is not in line thereby the strongest procedure and laws will help Indian economy to cherish its Intellectual Property Rights as well as the economy.