Search Indian IP Case Law
Judgments of the Supreme Court and the High Courts on patents, trade marks, copyright, designs and geographical indications — organised by Act and section, each with a link to the judgment on the court’s website.
Recently added judgments
Case notes prepared by the Ragulika IP team, each linked to the judgment on the court’s website.
DAZN Limited & Anr. v. Back.methstreamer.com & Ors.
Websites that are substantially and primarily dedicated to unauthorised communication to the public of exclusively licensed broadcasts may be restrained by a permanent, whole-site injunction under Section 37 of the Copyright Act, …
Broadcasting RightsCopyright InfringementDigital PlatformsDynamic InjunctionPatentsDeepak Nitrite Limited v. The Assistant Controller General of Patents and Designs
It is wholly impermissible for the Controller, while exercising quasi-judicial powers under Section 15, to rely upon 'common general knowledge' as a self-sufficient ground for refusing a patent application without setting out and …
Common General KnowledgeFood Grade Sodium NitriteFree-FlowingImpurity ProfileDesignsDiageo Brands B.V. & Anr. v. Alcobrew Distilleries India Pvt. Ltd.
The test for infringement of a registered design under Section 22 of the Designs Act, 2000 is whether the design, viewed by an instructed or knowledgeable observer aware of the prior art, is identical or an obvious or fraudulent i…
Design InfringementFunctionalityNoveltyScope Of Design ProtectionPatentsDr. Aloys Wobben & Anr. v. Yogesh Mehra & Ors.
Section 64(1) of the Patents Act, 1970 grants alternative, not cumulative, remedies for seeking revocation of a patent: a petition before the Appellate Board, or a counter-claim in an infringement suit. Once a person interested el…
Counter-claimElection of RemediesPatent LitigationPatent RevocationCopyrightDr. Ashok M. Bhat v. Harichand Nagpal & Ors.
An injunction against use of a registered artistic work follows the artistic work onto any label, not merely the one impugned in the plaint. In Order XXXIX Rule 2A proceedings justification is no defence: so long as an order stand…
Contempt of InjunctionCounterfeitingExemplary CostsOrder XXXIX Rule 2APatentsE.R. Squibb and Sons, LLC & Ors. v. Zydus Lifesciences Limited
In a quia timet action under Sections 48 and 108, a strong prima facie apprehension of imminent infringement, evidenced by the defendant's own regulatory and manufacturing conduct, can justify an interim injunction; and a biosimil…
BiotechnologyInterim InjunctionPatent InfringementPharmaceutical PatentCopyrightEastern Book Company & Ors. v. D.B. Modak & Anr.
Copyright in a derivative or compiled work requires the exercise of some minimum degree of creativity through the application of skill and judgment, and not merely labour and capital expended in copying. Inputs that involve only m…
Copyright InfringementLiterary WorkOriginalityPublic DomainCopyrightEntertainment Network (India) Ltd. v. Super Cassettes Industries Ltd.
An offer to license copyrighted broadcasting rights on unreasonable terms constitutes a refusal under Section 31(1)(b) of the Copyright Act, 1957, and the existence of one voluntary licence does not bar the Copyright Board from gr…
Broadcasting RightsCompulsory LicenceCopyright BoardMusic And Sound RecordingsPatentsF. Hoffmann-La Roche AG & Anr. v. Natco Pharma Limited
A credible challenge to patent validity under Section 64(1)(f), showing that the claimed compound is an obvious and predictable structural modification of a compound already disclosed in the patentee's own earlier prior art, can d…
EvergreeningGenus-Species PatentInterim InjunctionInventive StepPatentsF. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. & Anr. v. Cipla Ltd.
A patent claim for a chemical compound is not to be narrowed to a specific polymorphic or crystalline form merely because the specification discusses particular polymorphs, where the claim itself is drafted broadly to cover the co…
Claim ConstructionPatent InfringementPharmaceutical PatentPolymorphBrowse by Act and section
Every case is linked to the statutory provisions it interprets.