K'taka judicial officers competent to judge IPR cases: CJ

Bangalore, Aug 10 (UNI) Karnataka High Court Chief Justice Cyriac Joseph today said judicial officers of the state were equally competent and well-equipped to deal with cases involving Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and related issues.

Speaking after inaugurating the 'Judges Round Table on Advanced Module on IPR Adjudication,' jointly organised by Karnataka Judicial Acadamy, FICCI and Christ Law College here, Justice Joseph said in deciding IPR cases there was need for in depth study on the subject which was assuming more importance with the emergence of knowledge industry in India.

''There is a wrong notion that only few courts in selected cities can handle IPR related cases. Courts in states like Karnataka and its judicial officers are equally well equipped and have developed expertise in handling it,'' he said.

Compared to other states, the pendency of cases in high courts and sub-ordinate courts in Karnataka was less.

''In some courts, virtually there are no pending cases and judicial officers are being asked to handle cases of other courts,'' he said.

Mr G V Subramanyam, Vice-President of SETLabs, a subsidiary of Infosys, said research and innovation were now seen as the key factors determining the market value of a product or service.

''It has become imperative for the industry to manage and protect ideas, inventions and processes more frequently or risk losing market share,'' he said.

Stressing the need for efficient and effective IP enforcement regime, he said the increase in global trade coupled with technological revolution had led to increase in IP-related crimes.

FICCI Executive Director Akash Taneja said importance of IP was increasing by the day and governments worldwide were adopting new strategies to combat IPR violations.

''Well designed IP regime increases national wealth and benefits consumers,'' he said.

Karnataka Judicial Acaeamy Chairman S R Bannurmath said the academy was taking pro-active measures to include new and emerging areas of law such as IP and information technology in training programmes for judicial officers.

Eminent academicians, legal experts and practitioners in faculty and judicial officers were participating in the three-day event in an attempt to improve the competence of the judges in dealing with IPR issues, Mr Justice Bannurmath said.

UNI