In a case that could shake up the Indian intellectual property landscape, a court in New Delhi on Thursday said the government had failed to prove that the patent system was unfair to the public.
The government has been challenging the validity of the patent application filed by Indian software developer Pradeep Singh Sridhar.
In December 2016, the Supreme Court ruled that the Indian patent system is not a monopoly but rather an open and transparent system.
In the case, the court said that the government did not have a valid basis to file a patent application.
The court had in February last year also said that it will consider whether the patent granted by the government is valid.
The issue of the validity and validity of patent applications is also one of the issues that the Supreme court was hearing in the Sridhan case in November last year.
The Supreme Court is hearing a similar case involving another Indian software company, Infosys, that is now facing the same challenge from the government.
A bench of justices of the Supreme Council of Legal Advisers (SCLA) ruled in July last year that the validity or validity of patents should be examined as part of a judicial review process.
A court in December last year had also said the validity should be considered when considering the validity, validity of licences granted under the Patents Act, 1972.
The SCLA had also questioned whether the government should have taken a tougher stance against Sridhans patent application, saying it had been submitted in haste.
The bench also said it was “not clear” if the government could have filed the patent in a timely manner.
The case is being heard in the Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) in New New Delhi, but the government has filed a plea in the apex court seeking a stay of the case.
In a statement, the ministry of electronics and information technology said it had filed the petition on Sridhams application, which was filed before the apex Court in February.
It said the patent has been approved by the apex government in March this year and the government’s appeal to the SCLA is not yet filed.
The ministry of home affairs had earlier said that there was no issue with the validity status of the software.