ARTICLE
10 November 2000

Singapore Appeals Court Rules In Favour Of Patentee

Singapore Tax

Two Singapore companies Genelabs Diagnostics Pte Ltd & Nagase Singapore (Pte) Ltd ("Appellants/Defendants") were sued by Institute Pasteur a non-profit foundation based in France & Pasteur Sanofi Diagnostics a French Company ("the Respondents/Plaintiffs") for infringement of their patent rights. The Respondents/Plaintiffs had been the first to discover the HIV-2 virus, a new type of virus capable of causing AIDS in man. It came to the knowledge of the Respondents/Plaintiffs that the Appellants/Respondents were manufacturing and selling diagnostic kits known as Genelabs diagnostics HIV Blot Versions 2.2 and 1.2

The case was a first of its kind in Singapore. The High Court had ruled in favour of the Respondents/Plaintiffs. The Appellants/Defendants took the matter on appeal. The Court of Appeal agreed with the lower court and rejected the Appellants/Defendants arguments that the patent was not new and anticipated. The Court also rejected the Appellants/Defendants' laches and acquiescence defences and ruled that Respondents/Plaintiffs did not know of the act of Infringements on the part of Appellants/Defendants, until 1996 and initiated action in 1998. Besides granting an injunction, damages was also ordered in favour of the Respondents/Defendants to be assessed.

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