NOCIL Ltd v. Finorchem Ltd and Anr

The petitioner sought an interim injunction to stop the respondents from infringing its granted process patents and exploiting trade secrets used to manufacture a chemical intermediate known as 4-ADPA. The petitioner discovered that the first respondent had engaged a retired senior technical employee of the petitioner who was contractually bound by a non-disclosure agreement covering the manufacturing process. Furthermore, environmental reports and patent filings submitted by the first respondent revealed nearly identical manufacturing steps and catalysts. The High Court allowed the interim application and restrained the respondents from using the patented processes or breaching confidentiality. The court emphasized that the defendant failed to present a credible challenge to invalidate the established patents and adopted inconsistent positions while attempting to mask substantial process equivalence. Result: Interim injunction application allowed; respondents restrained from infringing the process patents and using the petitioner's confidential information.