Is Abolishment Of IP Appellate Board A Right Decision By Government?
ARTICLE  To print this article, all you need is to be registered or login on Mondaq.com. Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) which was authorized to hear appeals against the decisions of the Registrar in matters related to Trademarks, Patents, Copyright, Geographical Indications, and Plant Varieties has been abolished by the way of an ordinance that came into force on April 04, 2021. The Tribunal Reforms (Rationalisation and Conditions of Service) Ordinance, 2021 1 (Ordinance) has been promulgated by the President in order to rationalize the functioning of certain tribunals arrangements. Further, the Ordinance abolishes certain tribunals which were formed under the Cinematograph Act, 1952; the Customs Act, 1962; the Airports Authority of India Act, 1994; the Trade Marks Act, 1999; the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights Act, 2001 and certain other Acts. The ordinance also aims to save considerable expense to the exchequer and focuses on speedy delivery of justice via transferring the jurisdiction exercised by these tribunals to the High Court. IPAB (Appellate Board) was first introduced by the central government in the year 2003 to hear appeals against the decisions of the Registrar under the Trade Marks Act, 1999 and Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999. Later, the appeals related to the Patent Act, 1970, the Copy Right Act, 1957 and the Plant Varieties and Farmers Act (2011) were also transferred to Appellate Board which were earlier handled by commercial courts and high courts respectively. The Appellate Board was formed to accelerate the disposal of cases utilizing its team of technical and IPR experts whose precise views on technical and complicated scientific matters, particularly in patent appeal cases, expedited the speedy delivery of justice. Many landmark judgements were delivered by IPAB in the last decade which helped in reforming working procedures of the Patent and Trademark offices. Nevertheless, it has been observed for the past many years that the Appellate Board failed to meet its objective for which it was created. The Board remained non-functional for quite some years due to vacant positions including that of chairperson and technical members which led to pendency of cases at IPAB. With passing of the Ordinance as on April 04, 2021, all the pending/new appeals against the decisions of the Registrar of Trademarks, the Registrar of Geographical Indications, and the Controller of Patents will now be transferred/filed before the High Courts. Whereas the pending/new appeals w.r.t Copyrights will now be filed/transferred before the concerned commercial courts including the Commercial Division of the High Courts. Although the government's decision to dismantle these appellate tribunals has been taken in order to streamline them, the legal fraternity has a split opinion on the same. The abolishment of IPAB sounds well-reasoned for some, while others say it will create more burden on high courts which are already struggling with backlog of cases. Mere abolishment of the Appellate Board will not be enough, the government should make a provision for special commercial courts/benches under High Court to look after the relevant cases. If this is not done, the ordinance will not make any difference other than increasing the caseload of an already overburdened judiciary system. Footnote  1. https://egazette.nic.in/WriteReadData/2021/226364.pdf  The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.