Justice Prathiba M Singh imposed a fine of ₹1 lakh on Google for presenting wrong facts and for its failure to disclose information regarding the refusal of a patent by the European Patent Office (EPO).
The Court noted that even though Google had said that its patent application before the EPO was abandoned, the record suggested that it was rejected for lack of an inventive step.
“Considering the submission made that the EPO application was abandoned and coupled with the fact that the corresponding EU application for the subject patent comprised of not one but two applications, including a divisional application, and that they both were rejected for lack of inventive step, in the present appeal costs are also liable to be imposed. The Appellant in the present appeal not only presented wrong facts to the Court, but also failed to disclose the information regarding the refusal of the EU parent application as also of the divisional application which was filed consequently,” the Court observed.
Source: Barandbench
