With the world marching towards brand awareness, brand recognition, claiming rights over their invention, and increased knowledge about IP Right, there has been rapid inc.

IP Litigation for different categories of the IPR are different and reliance is placed on statutory provisions to deal with the stages of litigation:

1. Trademark litigation
2. Patent litigation
3. Design litigation
4. Copyright litigation
5. Counterfeit goods
6. Domain name disputes

A well-known legal maxim can be rightly quoted here “ubi jus ibi remedium” which precisely means “Where there are rights, there are remedies.” If the registrant has rights over their IPR, they rightfully can demand statutory remedies for violation of these rights.

There are two kinds of statutory remedies available to the IP Owners:

1. Civil remedies
2. Criminal remedies

One can enforce their civil remedies by filing an infringement suit for violation of their IP rights or Passing off claims in the Court of Law. The following civil rights are available to the right holders:

As the name suggests, this remedy phohibits any action by the infringer party until disposal of the lawsuit. It is not a mandatory, but discretionary relief granted by the court until final judgement of the Court. The court will grant permanent relief if the plaintiff is able to establish a prima-facie case in his favour that if this injunction is not granted to him then he will suffer irreparable loss.

This injunction protects the interest of the plaintiff during the pendency of suit and restricts the defendant from disposing the assents within the jurisdiction until any further orders are passed.

These are special orders which enable the plaintiff to enter the defendant’s premises and conduct inspections of relevant documents and articles. It also allows them to take copies of the documents, remove the articles and place them for safe custody. It is also known as ex-parte order granted by court in favour of the plaintiff against the defendant. Such orders are considered necessary where there is grave danger of destruction or removal of certain documents, articles or any evidences which can jeopardize the justice delivery system.

Also known as search and seizure order, this helps the commissioner appointed by the court to raid the premises of the defendant infringer where all infringement activities has been carried out.

The Court permanently restricts the defendant from carrying out any such work that can affect the rights of the infringers or to take certain actions in perpetuity.

These are monetary relief given to plaintiff requiring the defendant to pay a certain sum of compensation for all the loss suffered by the plaintiff due to the acts of the defendant infringer

Accounts of profit are the equitable remedy wherein the court orders the defendant to hand over the actual amount of profits to the plaintiff made by him by using the infringing acts.

The infringed goods are delivered to the plaintiff or are destroyed at the option of the parties.

Criminal remedies in India are provided only for Trademarks and copyrights.

Copyrights: Section 63 of the Copyright Act, 1957 deals with ‘Offences of Infringement of copyright or other rights conferred by the Act’. As per the statutory provisions, in case of any infringement, the infringer will be punished with an imprisonment for a term not less than 6 months extended up to 3 years and fine not less than Rs. 50,000 rupees and maximum of 2 lakh rupees

Chapter XII of the Trademarks Act, 1999 deals with offences, penalties and procedures pertaining to trademark infringement. The infringer can be punished with an imprisonment of not less than three years and fine of not less than Rs. 50,000 to Rs. 2 lakh. Indian Patent Act, 1970 recognises certain acts to be criminal offences like falsification of entries in register, claiming patent rights in an unauthorized way etc. Such penalties are mentioned under Chapter XX of the Indian Patents Act, 1970.