In a huge development concerning the Risdiplam litigation saga, a division bench of the Delhi High Court has rejected the appeal against the order refusing to grant an interim injunction to Roche. Pronounced just a few mins ago, in the decision, J. Hari Shankar (for the bench) said that a credible challenge has been made on grounds listed in Section 64 (1)(f) against Roche’s patent and thus refused to interfere with the Single judge’s judgement. For the uninitiated, Section 64(1)(f) is a ground for seeking revocation of a patent on account of it being obvious, lacking any inventive step, or was publicly used or published in India or elsewhere before the priority date.
Before the Single Judge, Natco had challenged the patent mainly on the grounds of (i) anticipation and (ii) obviousness. Readers can refer to Yogesh’s fantastic post on the single judge order here.
We still await a copy of the order and hope that it is as short and succinct as Justice Hari Shankar’s pronouncement, which lasted for less than 2 minutes and yet conveyed all the necessary details! The rumour mill says that Natco may even launch its version today. We’ll know soon enough!