The Delhi High Court has directed an alleged infringer, a South Korean company—Ace Technology Corporation—to make an interim deposit of around Rs. 54 crores with the Court’s Registry to continue the sale of products manufactured through the patent technology.
The Court made it clear that in case of non-compliance, theinfringer shall be restrained from manufacturing, selling, or offering for saleany such products.
A Bench of Justice Prathiba M Singh passed the orders on apatent infringement suit filed by Communication Components Antenna INC, aCanadian company, in connection with its patent titled “Asymmetrical Beams forSpectrum Efficiency”.
As per the Canadian company, the patent was for an antennawhich has an asymmetrical beam pattern and other features as mentioned in itsspecification. Although the patent is not a standard-essential patent, theCanadian company has licensed it to various parties. In 2017, the Canadiancompany discovered that the German Company was infringing its patent.
After the suit was filed, the Canadian Company was directednot to offer for sale any such antennae to any cellular operators in India tillthe next date of hearing. The orders for imports were, however, allowed subjectto the filing of the accounts relating to the same.
The plaintiff argued that its patent was novel and itspurpose was to achieve greater efficiency without compromising on quality. Itwas thus submitted that the suit patent was a validly granted patent whichintroduced asymmetrical beam patterns in split-sector fixed beam antennae.
It was further submitted that although its antenna isdescribed as a “smart antenna” and a large number of them were supplied by itspredecessor in India, in recent times, several third parties had startedsupplies of infringing antennae in India which resulted in an erosion of theplaintiff’s market.
The German company, on the other hand, stated that validityof the suit patent was already a subject matter of another pending litigationbefore the Court. In that suit, the Court had expressed a prima facie opinionthat since there was a credible challenge to the validity of the patent, aninjunction could not be granted.
While adjudicating on the issue of “additionallimitations” in the US patent with respect to the determination of thetrue purport, meaning and purpose behind the invention in India, the Courtobserved that the language of the patent claims in different jurisdictions,after it is granted in various domestic jurisdictions, would usually never beidentical.
“Insofar as the sales made during the pendency of the suitare concerned, the total sales are to the tune of $21,835,000, which come toRs.148,47,80,000, ten percent of which is approximately Rs.14.5 crores,” thecourt observed, and directed the German company to deposit the Bank Guaranteewith the Registrar General of the Court within one month from date of judgment.”If the Defendants do not comply with the above directions within one month,the Defendants shall stand restrained from manufacturing, selling, offering forsale any models of antennae which infringe suit patent number IN 240893.”
Senior Advocate C. S. Vaidyanathan represented the Canadiancompany while Ace Technologies Corporation was defended by senior advocate ArunKathpalia.