Intellectual Property Appellate Board crippled due to poor infrastructure, PIL says

CHENNAI: Despite being a premier body settling disputes over intellectual property rights and trademark rows, the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) headquartered in Chennai has neither proper infrastructure nor finance to function efficiently, said a PIL in the Madras high court.

A division bench comprising Justice Satish Kumar Agnihotri and Justice K K Sasidharan, before which the PIL filed by the Intellectual Property Association of South India president Perbulavil Radhakrishnan came up for admission on Tuesday, issued notices to the Centre and adjourned the matter to January 3, 2014 for further hearing.

While the IPAB's principal bench here functioned out of a rented premises on Anna Salai, its circuit benches in other places too did not have permanent places of their own, the PIL said. In Ahmedabad the last hearing was held at the conference hall of the old high court centre; in Delhi the November 15 hearing was held at Boudhik Sampada Bhawan in Dhwaraka; in Kolkata it was held at conference hall of the patent office; and in Mumbai it was convened in court room no. 16 of the high court's annexe building.

Radhakrishnan said the private premises at Teynampet where the IPAB's principal bench is functioning at present did not have adequate parking and other facilities, and added that the Centre had abysmally failed and grossly neglected to provide infrastructural and financial support for court halls, record rooms and library as well.

Poor infrastructure would have adverse impact on hearing and settling issues relating to patent, trademarks and geographical indications which would have far-reaching consequences not only in India but at the global level.

As posted in The Times of India

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