Novartis agrees to Centre's proposal on Glivec hearing

Swiss major Novartis on Monday told the Madras High Court that it would agree to the Union government's proposal of excluding a technical member from the patent cell of Intellectual Property Appellate Board to hear its appeal.

The Centre had informed, on October 8, the court that the patent cell of IPAB could exclude S Chandrasekaran, former Controller General of Indian Patent Office and the cell comprising the chairman and vice-chairman could go ahead with the hearing.

Novartis had objected to the inclusion of Chandrasekaran on the grounds that Chandrasekaran was Controller General of Patents when the company's original application for Glivec was rejected.

The company felt that the presence of Chandrasekaran on the board could affect the process of natural justice, and had sought his replacement. On IPAB rejecting its appeal, Novartis had filed a petition with the Madras HC seeking Chandrasekaran's replacement.

Arguing before a division bench comprising chief justice A P Shah and justice V Ramasubramanian, senior counsel Shanti Bhusan, appearing on behalf of Novartis, said the company would agree to Centre's proposal and submitted that Section 84 (2) of the Trade Marks Act provided for constitution of the IPAB bench.

He further elaborated on the provisions in the Act enabling the chairman of a bench to discharge the function of a judicial and technical member. Hence, chairman and vice-chairman could hear Novartis' appeal, he added.

Appearing for the Centre, additional solicitor general V T Gopalan submitted that appointment of a new technical member would take 12-15 months, hence the court might direct constitution of bench comprising the chairman and vice-chairman as a special case. This bench might be at liberty to seek technical inputs as and when required.

While most of the pharma companies, which were party to the litigation, agreed to Centre's proposal, Hyderabad-based Natco Pharma objected to the Centre's proposal.

Senior counsel P S Raman appearing for Natco Pharma has sought time till tomorrow to make his submissions. The division bench will hear Raman's submissions tomorrow and pass the order.