Patent infringement: Delhi High Court orders Triveni Chemicals director to pay ₹2 crore to Pfizer or go to prison

The Delhi High Court recently ordered the director of a company Triveni Chemicals to pay ₹2 crores in damages to global pharma giant Pfizer for contempt of court and infringement of Pfizer’s patented compound Palbociclib [Pfizer Inc & Ors v Triveni Interchem Private Limited & Ors]. .The medication Palbociclib was developed by Pfizer for the treatment of certain types of breast cancer. Justice C Hari Shankar said that if the contemnor Kamlesh Singh, who is the director of Triveni, fails to pay the damages, he will be taken into custody and detained in a civil prison at Tihar Jail for two weeks..The Court passed the order after Pfizer filed an application in its already pending suit arguing that Triveni is guilty of wilful and contumacious disobedience of order of the Court dated October 21, 2021.Through the order, the High Court had granted interim relief to Pfizer by restraining the defendant Triveni from making, advertising or selling any product, which has, as an ingredient, Palbociclib or any pharmaceutically acceptable salt which would infringe their patent.Triveni was also directed to remove from its websites or any third-party platform, any indication that they are offering or selling the medication.However, Pfizer found continuing instances of the listings of the products on a website called IndiaMART, in a new packaging. It then moved a contempt application..After considering the application and the affidavit filed by Singh, Justice Hari Shankar observed that the defendant has no regard for the truth and that he was "resorting to misstatement after misstatement."The Court further said that the apology tendered in the affidavit was also unacceptable because it came from a person unwilling to disclose to the Court the exact quantity of Palbociclib which his company dealt with.“Prima facie, therefore, this Court is of the view that the defendant, who has already been found guilty of wilful and contumacious disobedience, against which the defendant has not preferred any appellate or other remedy, is also unwilling to come clean before this Court or to disclose to this Court the amount of Palbociclib in which it has dealt,” the bench said.The Court, therefore, held that Singh had committed wilful and contumacious contempt of court and rendered himself liable to punishment.“Accordingly, in the interest of justice, the Court deems it appropriate to dispose of this application by directing Kamlesh Singh, the director of Defendants 1 and 2 to pay, to the plaintiff, an amount of ₹ 2,00,00,000/- within a period of two weeks from today, failing which he shall be taken into custody and detained in a civil prison for a period of two weeks at Tihar Jail, Delhi,” the Court ordered..Pfizer was represented by advocates Pravin Anand, Tusha Malhotra and Richa Bhargava.Advocates Sandeep Sharma, Shailender Pratap Singh, Anand Darshan, Amit Choudhary, Sarthak M, Kanika Mitra and Om Batra appeared for Defendant Nos 1, 2 and 4.Defendants No 4 was represented by advocate Naman Joshi..[Read Order]