ENFORCEMENT OF IPR AND ACTION ON INFRINGEMENT

Broadly, IP rights in India can be enforced by two ways

Civil action and Criminal action.
Civil action: As and when a party proposed to take a
civil action against any infringer, it has to file a Suit for
infringement or passing off in a High Court or a District
Court (Both courts have jurisdiction). If the Plaintiff has
a good prima facie case, Indian Courts are very prompt
in granting ex parte Injunctions, restraining the
Defendant, his agents, servants etc. from infringing a
Trade Mark/Copyright/patent or a design of the Plaintiff.
Once an ex parte injunction is granted, we, at Aggarwal
Associates, can say, from our vast experience of the
last about 40 years, that in all probability, the matter is
settled between the parties and a Compromise Decree
is passed by the Court in favour of the Plaintiff and
against the Defendant. This entire process takes a
period of approximately one month to four months.
However, an ex parte injunction can be obtained within
about three days or so after receiving the documents
and instructions from the client.
In case the Defendant fights the case, in that case also,
the trial of the entire Suit can be finished within a
maximum period of two years, depending upon the
caliber and efficiency of the Lawyer representing the
Plaintiff in the Court. This has become possible because
there have been changes in the Indian Civil Procedure
Code, whereby now evidence is led by way of Affidavits
instead of oral evidence as heretofore.

Criminal action: In so for as criminal actions are

concerned, in case the counterfeiting goods are
available on a large scale in the market, and a Mark, or
a copyright is infringed at different places, we generally
advise our clients to file a Criminal Complaint before
the Court of Metropolitan Magistrate and obtain Search
& Seizure Orders against Unknown persons/firms etc.
After receiving instructions from the Clients with
complete address of the Accused along with necessary
documents, we at Aggarwal Associates can assure our
clients that we shall be in a position to obtain Search &
Seizure Orders from the court within ten days or so
after receipt of the instructions. Once Search & Seizure
Orders are obtained from the Court, the raids can be
got conducted with the help of the Police and
fake/duplicate goods can be recovered and seized by
the police and the same remain in Police custody.
Criminal action leads to criminal prosecution. Once
raids are conducted, goods are seized and Police files
its report before the Metropolitan Magistrate, charges
are framed against the accused and immediately
thereafter from the same day, the criminal prosecution
turns out to be a State case, meaning thereby that it
becomes a case between the State and the accused,
and the Counsel for the Complainant or the
Complainant need not attend the matter.