This post exhibits the statistics of IP litigation in India in the past decade.
The following table displays the statistics that were arrived at after conducting a search on Manupatra . It tabulates the estimated number of decisions passed by the Supreme Court and High Courts with respect to patents, trademarks and copyrights in the past decade.
IP Decisions Passed by SC and HCs from 2004 – 2014
| Year | Number of Decided Cases for Patent | Number of Decided Cases for Trademark | Number of Decided Cases for Copyright |
| 2004 | 23 | 14 | 61 |
| 2005 | 26 | 98 | 85 |
| 2006 | 35 | 100 | 87 |
| 2007 | 40 | 130 | 110 |
| 2008 | 56 | 155 | 158 |
| 2009 | 65 | 173 | 142 |
| 2010 | 52 | 149 | 126 |
| 2011 | 67 | 184 | 148 |
| 2012 | 52 | 164 | 112 |
| 2013 | 50 | 174 | 122 |
| 2014 | 113 | 239 | 181 |
| Total | 579 | 1580 | 1332 |
In the past decade, the number of cases on patents in India has increased. The table above shows a steady rise in the decisions during 2004-2009, which saw the number of decided cases increase by nearly two folds. The first dip in the past decade was seen in 2010 when the number of decisions passed dropped down considerably to 52.The second dip was seen in 2012, when the number of decisions dropped from 67 in 2011 to 52 in 2012 and further dropping to 50 in 2013. However, in the following year we see an exponential rise to more than double than that of the previous year, with 113 cases decided in 2014.
The importance of trademarks has increased with changing times. The table clearly indicates that, there has been a rise in the number of trademark cases (decisions passed by the Supreme Court and High Courts) from 2004 onwards. The number of orders passed in 2004 was only 14. The number of decisions has steadily increased till 2009, with the number reaching 173. A slight decrease in the numbers was seen in 2010 and 2012. But in 2014, the number of decisions passed rose to 239.
The number of decisions passed for copyrights, in 2004 was 61. Since then, there has been a steady increase in the number of decisions passed for copyright till 2007. In 2008, the number of decisions passed plummeted to 142, and further decreased to 112 in the year 2012. Last year, the number of copyright cases increased to 181.
Note: The table shows the number of decisions passed by the SC and HCs on patents, trademarks and copyrights from 2004-2014.The statistics have been obtained by doing a keyword search on Manupatra Database. Also note that multiple orders given in the same case have not been differentiated.
Read Dr. Kalyan’s note on The Case of Indian Intellectual Property
