Symbiosis Law School, Hyderabad

Expertise I Justice I Service

(Constituent of Symbiosis International University, Pune, Re-accredited by NAAC with Agrade)

1st Symbiosis Law School, Hyderabad National Moot Court Competition 2016
Moot Problem
Company Notsogeneral Electronics (NGE) is a foreign company having its registered office in the
State of Germnazi. It has recently ventured into the State of Indux (laws of which are similar to India).
NGE was doing well in its development oriented technological inventions relating to day to day life.
They introduced various new technologies in Indux, which, though expensive, promised to reduce the
average spending of the common population on electronic items by 50%, in the long run. Almost the
whole country was using the modern technologies introduced by NGE. There were unconfirmed news
that NGE was exerting its influence on the Government of Indux to procure government bids.
NGE came up with an energy efficient LED bulb technology that could work for 100 years without
getting fused or spoilt (BulbTech). NGE used a definite quantity of Barium Arsenide Phosphide
(BAP), which was considered by NGE as a novel step as BAP was not a commonly used
semiconductor in relation to LED. NGE heated the Barium Arsenide Phosphide at a particular
temperature and added certain quantity of nitrogen as impurity to increase the longevity of the product.
However, to achieve the optimum longevity, NGE had also used LED driver devices manufactured by
Monolever Limited (ML) of Indux. BulbTech got patent protection in Indux.
The best part of BulbTech was that it was sold on the basis of easy monthly instalments (EMI) by
NGE. Broadly stating, BulbTech worked in the following manner:

The circuit of the bulb was connected to the main server at Germnazi.

The EMI was spread across 15 months. On the default in payment of any instalment, the circuit got
disconnected from the operating system in Germnazi and the bulb stopped functioning.

The bulb came with a shrink-wrap contract. Every customer was bound by the contract with NGE,
the moment they tore open the wrapper of the bulb box.

At the time of purchase, the customer needed to pay the first instalment and also provide his credit
card details. Such credit card details were transferred by the outlet in Indux to NGEs main
operating centre in Germnazi.

For data privacy purposes, follows data security practices as

prescribed under the laws of Germnazi and not IS/ISO/IEC 27001 standards.

Energy consumption in domestic sector accounts for almost 50% of the total energy consumption in
Indux and lighting is a key component of the same. NGE provided a projection to the Government of
Indux and also widely publicised in all forms of media in Indux that BulbTech could reduce energy
consumption of Indux by 88% in the long run (as compared to ordinary bulb) and 50% (as compared to
CFLs). Ministry of Power in the Government of Indux was pleased with the idea of such energy saving
technique. They approached NGE for manufacturing BulbTech in Indux by availing the subsidies
provided by the Government of Indux under the Make in Indux initiative. The Ministry of Power also
showed interest for promoting and selling BulbTech through Government shops and electricity
department. NGE agreed to the proposal from the Government of Indux and signed an MOU. As a first
step of the MOU, Government of Indux started selling BulbTech through Government shops and
electricity department.
People of Indux bought BulbTech bulbs in large quantities and it became quite popular. However, a
number of customers who failed to pay the required subsequent instalments, faced disconnection of the
bulb. Apart from that, they also started getting promotional/solicitation calls for purchasing products of
Germnazi and for investing in financial products through the liberalised remittance scheme (LRS) in
International Commercial Banks of Germnazi. These banks are not approved by the Reserve Bank of
Indux under the LRS for solicitation of investments. On further enquiry, a customer, Mr. Ashok
Ganguly found out that NGE, which collected all the credit card details of customers, disposed of the
data when the BulbTech instalment was not paid and the contract was breached. On further enquiry,
Mr. Ganguly realised that in the indemnity clause of the shrink-wrap contract of BulbTech, it was
mentioned that NGE takes absolutely no responsibility of any data provided once the contract is
breached by the customer. The data may be disposed of in a manner that the company deems fit.
Finding his privacy rights breached, Mr. Ganguly filed a writ in the Honble High Court of Channel (a
state in Indux) against the Government of Indux and NGE. He was soon joined by other aggrieved
customers, including ML who alleged that BulbTech was not a patentable invention. The aggrieved
customers and ML have been collectively referred in the writ petition as BulbTech Aggrieved Parties
Group (BAPG).
BAPG alleged that the Government of Indux was instrumental in promoting and selling BulbTech to
the citizens of Indux and, therefore, it was expected to have done a diligence on BulbTech. BAPG
alleged that the shrink-wrap contract was not a valid form of contract and it was also contrary to the
data privacy laws of the country. BAPG also stated that BulbTech was not a patentable invention in the
first place. The High Court of Channel rejected the pleas of BAPG by taking into consideration the
arguments of NGE that the shrink-wrap contract was a valid contract, the patent on BulbTech was
validly granted to NGE, the concerned data privacy laws of Indux did not apply to NGE and, in any
case, the customers had already contracted out of any privacy requirement.

Aggrieved by the decision of the Honble High Court of Channel, BAPG has now invoked the Special
Leave Jurisdiction of the Honble Supreme Court of Indux.