In-depth analytical articles on Indian patent law including prosecution,enforcement, statutory interpretation and case developments.
A hearing before the Controller of Patents is the point at which an Indian patent application is actually decided. The examination report, the applicant’s reply and the exchange of correspondence all lead to it, and in the great majority of contested applications the refusal or grant that follows is the only order on the merits
Publication is the moment at which an Indian patent application stops being a private communication between an applicant and the Patent Office and becomes a public document. From that date the invention is part of the prior art against the world, the applicant acquires statutory privileges that stop short of a right to sue and
The publication of the Guidelines for the Use of Artificial Intelligence in Patent Examination Procedures by the Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks on 7 August 2026 marks the first occasion on which the Indian Patent Office has formally acknowledged and attempted to govern, a practice that had already been
Mergers and acquisitions have always been exercises in identifying, pricing and managing risk. For much of corporate history, that risk was understood primarily in financial, operational and regulatory terms balance sheet liabilities, workforce integration, antitrust clearance and market concentration. In the contemporary deal landscape and most acutely in India’s rapidly maturing M&A market, this understanding
Patent Valuation and Due Diligence in M&A Transactions Read More »
The relationship between intellectual property protection and the global response to the climate crisis has emerged as one of the most consequential and contested debates in contemporary international law. At its centre lies a fundamental tension: the patent system, which incentivises innovation by granting inventors temporary exclusivity over their inventions, simultaneously creates barriers to the
Climate Technology Patents and Compulsory Licensing – The Emerging Debate Read More »
The question of who owns a patent when the invention is made by an employee is one of the most practically significant and frequently misunderstood issues in Indian intellectual property law. As India’s research and development ecosystem expands spanning pharmaceutical companies, technology firms, government laboratories, academic institutions and the Indian operations of multinational corporations the
Employee Inventions and Ownership of Patents in India Read More »
India’s adoption of a comprehensive National Intellectual Property Rights Policy on 12 May 2016 marked an inflection point in the country’s engagement with the knowledge economy. For the first time, the government brought all forms of intellectual property – patents, trademarks, copyrights, geographical indications, industrial designs, semiconductor integrated circuit layout designs, trade secrets and plant
National IPR Policy 2016 India: Objectives, Reforms & Impact Read More »
Competition Law and Patent Licensing in India – CCI Jurisdiction, SEPs, FRAND and the Definitive Ericsson Rulings Patents and competition law sit in a relationship of permanent structural tension. A patent is, by design, a legal monopoly that the State grants an inventor the exclusive right to prevent all others from making, using, selling, or
Divisional Patent Application in India Section 16, Unity of Invention and the Post- Boehringer and Syngenta Legal Landscape Among the more technically demanding areas of Indian patent prosecution, divisional applications occupy a position of outsized practical importance. The ability to divide a patent application to carve out one or more inventions embedded in a parent
Divisional Patent Application in India: Section 16 Explained Read More »
Anti-Suit and Anti-Anti-Suit Injunctions in Indian SEP Litigation – CrossBorder FRAND Disputes and the Delhi High Court’s New Jurisprudence Standard essential patent litigation has always been an inherently global affair. A single smartphone implementing 4G or 5G cellular standards may infringe hundreds of patents held across dozens of jurisdictions and the manufacturer’s negotiations with a
Anti-Suit Injunctions in Indian SEP Litigation: The Xiaomi Doctrine Read More »