The court should interpret pleadings liberally and uphold the substance of the claim, not penalizing litigants for defects in pleadings.

Rajiv Sahai Endlaw, J.

1. This appeal under Order 43 Rule 1(a) of the Code of Civil Procedure 1908 impugns the order dated 28th February, 2014 of the learned Single Judge (exercising ordinary original civil jurisdiction) of allowing IA No.10390/2012 of the respondent/defendant under Order 7 Rule 10 of the CPC and returning the plaint in CS(OS) No.3193/2012 filed by the three appellants/plaintiffs for presentation in the appropriate Court.

2. Notice of the appeal was issued and owing to the urgency expressed by the appellants on the ground that the protection afforded by the US Supreme Court to the appellants qua the patent to which the suit pertains is till 24th May, 2014 only, hearing was expedited. We have heard the counsels for the parties.

3. The suit from which this appeal arises was filed by the appellants/plaintiffs for the relief of permanent injunction restraining the respondent/defendant from manufacturing, selling, offering for sale, exporting or registering the product that has been held by the United States District Court to infringe the appellants/plaintiffs Indian Patent No.190759 and for ancillary reliefs of rendition of accounts and damages, pleading:-

(i) that the appellant/plaintiff no.2 Yeda Research and Development Co. Ltd. Israel is the holder of Patent No.190759 dated 23rd May, 1995 in respect of “a method for manufacturing Co-polymer I fraction”;

(ii) that the appellants/plaintiffs using the patented method are manufacturing drug under the trademark COPAXONE for treatment of relapsing, remitting multiple sclerosis;

(iii) that the appellants/plaintiffs earlier filed CS(OS) No.1708/2007 in this Court against the respondent/defendant for restraining infringement of the said Patent No.190759;

(iv) that the respondent/defendant in the previous suit aforesaid made a statement that the process employed by the respondent/defendant for manufacturing the drug Glatiramer Acetate is different from the process which had been patented by the appellants/plaintiffs;

(v) that in view of the aforesaid statement of the respondent/defendant, the appellants/plaintiffs did not press their application for interim relief in the previous suit;

(vi) however it was reported in the news article published on 17th January, 2012 that the respondent/defendant will work with Mylan Pharmaceuticals Inc. (MPI) to launch Glatiramer Acetate for the treatment of multiple sclerosis;

(vii) that the appellants/plaintiffs on making enquiries learnt that MPI had signed an agreement with the respondent/defendant relating to development and marketing of Glatiramer Acetate in the United States and in pursuance thereof MPI submitted to the US FDA an Abbreviated New Drug Application seeking approval to manufacture and sell MPI’s proposed Glatiramer Acetate;

(viii) that the appellants/plaintiffs instituted a suit in the US District Court against MPI and the respondent/defendant for infringement of the US Patents of the appellants/plaintiffs;

(ix) after trial, the US Court found that the Glatiramer Acetate product that MPI and the respondent/defendant were seeking to sell in the United States infringes the claims of US Patent 430 and 898 (corresponding to Indian Patent 190759) of the appellants/plaintiffs;

(x) that the US Court’s decision leads to an incontrovertible conclusion of infringement of rights of the appellants/plaintiffs in Indian Patent 190759 based on the manufacture of Glatiramer Acetate by the respondent/defendant for export and sale in the United States; and,

(xi) “that the acts of the defendant in manufacturing the Glatiramer Acetate product for sale in the United States and elsewhere amount to a clear infringement of the registered Patent No.190759”.

4. Needless to state respondent/defendant contested the suit by filing a written statement. Application aforesaid under Order 7 Rule 10 of the CPC was also filed, pleading:-

(a) that this Court does not have territorial jurisdiction to entertain the suit;

(b) no pa