Patent petition against TCS dismissed

CHENNAI, INDIA: The Madras High Court dismissed the petition of a computer graduate seeking an interim injunction restrainingTata Consultancy Services (TCS) from infringing the applicant’s copyright and patent in the invention ‘FLYGUARD’ under the title e-passport (Smartcard) and as TCS e-passport solution.

S Paul Raj, the petitioner had said that he was the owner of the intellectual property in the patent regarding the invention in the written form of the project concept.

According to him, “Fly Guard system is developed in such a way that this would become a foremost equipment or system that can identify the faulty person and can prevent the illegal things from happening.”

His patent application (Application 1957/CHE/2007 published 2008-11-21, filed 2007-09-03), published on http://india.bigpatents.org/, says this is actually used for the purpose of storing a citizen's full details.

“By storing the human's details in a global server, it is allowing the security department to retrieve and view the details of each person. A personal profile record file will be created once he is into a process of applying for a travel identity such as passport or Visa.”

No body can use more than one passport, he claimed.

Paul Raj, in his application, said that during his study, he identified several areas in daily life, which could be simplified with technological intervention and he was the owner of the intellectual property in the patent regarding the invention in the written form of the project concept, Fly Guard.

However, TCS said that the concept was bereft of any novelty and such a concept involved technologies that were already in public domain for a long time. Moreover, the applicant had not operationalized the so-called idea and there was no patent registration in his name either.

The court of Justice K Chandru observed that the applicant had neither made out any prima facie case nor the balance of convenience was in his favour for the grant of any interim order.