Strengthen courts dealing with intellectual property rights disputes: Experts

CHENNAI: There is an urgent need to strengthen the courts dealing with disputes related to intellectual property rights (IPR), opined experts at an event organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
The Tamil Nadu Technology Development and Promotion Centre (TNTDPC) and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) organised the fourth edition of LITCON, a conference on intellectual property litigation in Chennai recently. Speaking at the event, experts in the field stressed the need to strengthen the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) to ensure speedy trials and remedies for the industries.

Justice S Jagadeesan, in his keynote address, said that intellectual property rights give competitive advantages to the innovators as well as industry and added that IPR encouraged creations, innovations and research and development. He opined that the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) needed to be strengthened further for speedy trials and remedies.

X Arokianathan, convener, CII MSME panel (Chennai zone), said that the courts in India were now increasingly conscious of the importance of awarding damages and were ensuring the establishment of a culture of grant of compensatory and punitive damages.

Another speaker, Praveen Anand, managing partner, Anand and Anand, said that Commercial Courts Act was one of the key revolutions in the Indian IP legal system.