All patent litigations filed in various courts in the country after notification of the amended Patent Act, will be now transferred to the Intellectual Property Appellate Board constituted by the government last week. A notification to this effect was issued by the government on April 2 establishing the Board and is based in Chennai.

Several pharmaceutical companies have filed cases in High Courts and lower courts in different states challenging the decisions of the Patent Controller in granting or denying patents since 2005. According to an estimate, there are about 20 patent related cases to be decided in various courts.

The central government issued the notification on April 2, declaring that the provision in the Patents (Amendment) Act (Section 117G), which provides that all pending appeals in the High Courts shall be transferred to the Appellate Board set up under the Act and to be made effective from the date of the issue of the notification.

IPAB has a three-member team headed by S. Chandrasekaran who has been the Controller General of Patents, Design and Trademarks. He has already assumed the charge of the post of Technical Member (Patents), IPAB, Chennai on April 2 itself. With the appointment of Technical Member (Patents), the provisions of Patents Act related to IPAB, set up on 15th September 2003, now stands operationalised.

The IPAB is now fully functional for hearing the appeals against the orders of the Registrar of Trade Marks, Geographical Indications as well as the Controller of Patents.

Two prominent cases that will come to Board are the one challenging the rejection of patent plea for Glivec of Novartis and the other that of Wockhardt challenging denial of patent for a version of nadifloxacin. Wockhardt case is filed in Bombay High Court.