Delhi High Court awards over ₹152 crore damages to foreign company in patent suit over antenna technology

The Delhi High Court recently awarded more than ₹152 crore in damages to a foreign firm, Communication Components Antenna (CCA), in a patent infringement suit against the Rosenberger Group [Communication Components Antenna v. Rosenberger].

Justice Prathiba M Singh ruled that subsidiaries of the German-based Rosenberger Group had infringed upon CCA’s proprietary design for asymmetrical beam antennas.

In addition to the damages, the Court also issued a permanent injunction to restrain further unauthorised use of the antenna.

“A decree of permanent injunction is granted restraining the Defendants, their manufacturers, dealers, retailers, subsidiaries, and associate companies from selling, offering for sale or promoting any antenna which infringe the Plaintiff's suit patent,” the Court ordered.

The dispute concerned the alleged infringement of a patent covering a method to increase cellular network capacity by dividing traditional signal beams into asymmetrical patterns. This technology, used extensively in 4G LTE networks, allows service providers to enhance subscriber density while minimising interference in "handover zones."

During the proceedings, it was revealed that the Rosenberger companies had actively marketed these infringing antennas to major Indian telecommunications providers, including Reliance Jio.

In the judgment dated March 30, the Court analysed the overlap between the Rosenberger products and the features claimed in the suit patent.

The Court held that the technical evidence established a clear identity between the two.

“The beam patterns, as emerging from the Plaintiff’s patent and the Defendant’s brochures, when overlaid above each other at different weightings and values, show a near identity in the beam patterns,” it observed.

The Court further noted that the essential characteristics of the antennae were functionally identical. It thus held that CCA had sufficiently proved infringement of its suit patent.

"Moreover, even the Defendants’ stand that they are using the Butler Matrix design has been sufficiently disproved in the cross-examination of DW-2 as the Defendants were unable to show which prior art is being used for the manufacture of their antenna in combination with the Butler Matrix design," it added.

As the Court upheld the validity of the patent against various challenges, it directed the registry to issue a "certificate of validity" for Indian Patent No. 240893 in terms of Section 113 of the Patents Act.

This formal acknowledgment confirms the patent's legal standing following the conclusion of the infringement suit.

While parting with the verdict, the Court placed on record its appreciation for counsel, specifically acknowledging assistance of an advocate who passed away during the pendency of the case.

“The Court would also wish to specifically commend the excellent assistance provided by Mr Varun Sharma, ld. Counsel, who unfortunately passed away during the period when the judgement was reserved in this matter,” it said.

CCA was represented by Senior Advocate Gaurav Pachnanda along with Advocates Sidhant Goel, Mohit Goel, Deepankar Mishra, Aditya Goel and Avni Sharma from Sim & San.

The Rosenberger entities were represented by Senior Advocate Vivek Chibb with Advocates Varun Sharma, Manish Aryan, Nishant Rai, Manisha Singh, Abhai Pandey, Mansi Gupta, Siddharth, Akhya Anand, Shivani Singh, Dhruv Tandan and Anju Agarwal from LexOrbis.

[Read Judgment]