In a detailed post, we covered the various amendments brought about by the Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Act, 2023 (JV Act) to the intellectual property legislation in India. As a quick recap, the JV Act was passed by the Lok Sabha on 27 June 2023 and by the Rajya Sabha on 2 August 2023, receiving the President’s assent on 11 August 2023. The objective of the JV Act is to enhance trust-based governance and facilitate ease of doing business in the country through decriminalisation and rationalisation of various ‘minor’ offences.
Recently, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, through notifications dated 26 July 2024 and 29 July 2024, appointed 1 August 2024 as the effective date for the provisions of the JV Act. Notably, various offences deemed ‘minor’ have been decriminalised and omitted completely or replaced with monetary penalties as mentioned in our previous article - here. Initially, the 2024 notification brought the amended provisions of the Patents Act, 1970, the Trade Marks Act, 1999 and the Geographical Indications of Goods Act, 1999 into effect from 1 August 2024.
All three acts have seen the decriminalisation of various such offences, which have been replaced with differential penalties based on a percentage of turn-over of individuals and companies, serving as a strong deterrent. The amended provisions also include mechanisms for adjudication of all such penalties. To ensure that all aggrieved parties have a fair opportunity to be heard, the amendments have also drawn up a mechanism to handle appeals arising from such penalties, thereby reducing the burden on the judiciary.
Separately, vide notification dated 29 July 2024, the amended provisions of the Copyright Act, 1957 were also deemed to become effective from 1 August 2024. Section 68 of the Copyright Act, 1957, which previously carried a penalty of imprisonment of up to 1 year, has been omitted. While other intellectual property legislations have seen an increase in the monetary penalties for various offences, the penalty for incomplete / non-filing of Form 27 under the Patents Act, 1970 for working of patents in the country has been reduced significantly and its effect will be interesting to observe.
