Introduction
The Indian Patent Law has often been deemed as one of the most rigid and austere laws in the world, with limited flexibility, especially in terms of deadlines. However, contrary to the popular belief, there have been instances where the Indian courts have restored patent applications even when they violated a statutory deadline under the Indian Patents Act, 1970 (hereinafter “Act”).
The recent case of The European Union, represented by The European Commission v/s Union of India & Ors [1] was one such case in which, the single judge bench of Delhi High Court restored two applications that were “deemed to be abandoned” due to non-filing of a response to the first examination reports issued in the respective matters.
Facts of the Case
The Petitioner, The European Union, represented by The European Commission engaged the European Law Firm, M/s FREYLINGE to file and prosecute two PCT National Phase Indian Patent Applications, 11123/DELNP/2012 dated 21st December 2012 and 3466/DELNP/2013 dated 18th April 2013, who contracted a patent agent in India, (hereinafter ‘first patent agent’) for the same. Subsequently, the applicant transferred the two applications to another European firm, M/s GEVERS in June 2017. The first patent agent confirmed the receipt of the instructions that the files had been transferred. Read more