On 10 April 2023, the Division Bench of the Delhi High Court dismissed an appeal filed by Ace Technologies Corp., a Korean company, upholding the findings of infringement in favour of Communication Components Antenna Inc. (“CCI”), a Canadian-American company.
The underlying suit relates to a patent in the telecoms sector, involving the design of an antenna which increases subscriber capacity.
The Division Bench rejected all grounds of invalidity of the patent in question, raised by the Appellants, holding that no credible challenge to the validity of the patent had been raised at the interim stage.
In a significant development in patent jurisprudence in India, the Division Bench has set the test for what constitutes “patentable” subject matter under Indian law. Specifically, the Division Bench held that “a known product, which is specifically modified and configured to provide a specified result of an economic value, would be considered to be patentable as it would be a new product.” The Division Bench also analysed the interplay between the claims, specifications and the preferred embodiments disclosed in a patent, while interpreting the scope of the patent. Significantly, the decision also extended the “Safe Distance Rule” to patent infringement cases.
Other key aspects of the judgment are the rulings on the territorial jurisdiction of Indian courts in patent infringement claims, the relevance of observations made by foreign patent offices and adverse inferences drawn from non-disclosure of best evidence by the patent infringer.
Gaurav Pachnanda SA acted for Communication Components Antenna Inc., instructed by Sidhant Goel and Mohit Goel of SIM AND SAN, Attorneys at Law, and was assisted by Avni Sharma, Advocate.
The judgement can be accessed here.
