Anton Piller Order in UK and its Possible Implications in India

Abstract

Concrete evidence is vital to substantiate one’s claim and obtain relief in any case, including those revolving round infringement of intellectual property rights. To prevent situations where the defendants might destroy the evidences on being aware of the impending legal actions, the English Courts devised a new strategy - an ex parte interlocutory injunction which enables the plaintiffs’ solicitors to enter the defendants’ premises and obtain the offending materials or documents to produce them at the trial – called the Anton Piller order. However, due to its enormous power, if not used sparingly, the Anton Piller order can be abused to a large extent. The application of Anton Piller order in India is still in nascent stage and lot many questions are still left unanswered. This paper looks into the rights and obligations of the parties, risks associated with it and the possible solutions, in perspective of the intellectual property right infringement cases.