It is common to witness infringement cases in the intellectual
property law sector but rarely there are suits which point out to
the defects in the system managing the grant and working of
patents, trademarks or other intellectual property rights.
In the case of Shamnad Basheer v. Union of India and
Others 1, a writ-petition was filed against the
defaulting patentees as well as the Patent Office as both of them
were not complying with the statutory requirements.
Facts leading to the case
Section 83 (g) of the Patents Act, 1970 clearly mentions that
"patents are granted to make the benefit of the patented
invention available at reasonably affordable prices to the
public".
To fulfil such an object, Section 146 of the abovementioned Act
specifies that a periodical statement as to the extent to which
the patented invention has been worked on a commercial scale in
India has to be submitted by every patentee as well as
licensee. The Controller has the power under
