Novartis case Update 3.4.07

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Novartis Update, 3 April 2007

The Indian Government issued a notification yesterday declaring that the

provision in the Patents (Amendment) Act (section 117G), that provides that all

pending appeals in the High Court shall be transferred to the Appellate Board

set up under the Act, shall be made effective as of 2 April 2007.

The text of section 117G states:

" All cases of appeals against any order or decision of the Controller and all

cases pertaining to revocation of patent other than on a counter-claim in a suit

for infringement and rectification of register pending before any High Court,

shall be transferred to the Appellate Board from such date as may be notified by

the Central Government in the Official Gazette and the Appellate Board may

proceed with the matter either de novo or from the stage it was so transferred. "

The Additional Solicitor General, VT Gopalan, brought this notification to the

Court's attention, claiming that the Court was thereby divested of jurisdiction

over the Patent Controller's Order.

Shanti Bhushan, however, took the position that under the plain language of

section 117G, the transfer of all pending cases to the Appellate Board was not

self-executing, and required a further notification from the Central Government,

after section 117G came into effect, to transfer all pending cases.

Due to the uncertainty in the exact operation of the Government's

notification, the Court asked Gopalan to seek instruction from the

Government as to how it wants to proceed.

The matter will resume tomorrow on this issue.

In solidarity,

Lawyers Collective HIV/AIDS Unit

Anand

Chan

Prathibha

e-mail: <george.julie@...>