In-depth analytical articles on Indian patent law including prosecution,enforcement, statutory interpretation and case developments.
Patent infringement litigation in India, as in every major patent jurisdiction, is rarely a simple contest between an unimpeachable patent and an undeniable act of infringement. The defendant in a patent infringement suit has available to it a range of defences statutory, equitable and procedural that can defeat or substantially limit the plaintiff’s claim even […]
Defences to Patent Infringement – Section 107 and Beyond Read More »
A patent, at its core, is a bargain between the inventor and the state. The inventor discloses the invention to the public in full; the state, in return, grants a limited monopoly for twenty years. The value of that monopoly depends entirely on how effectively it can be enforced. An unenforceable patent right is no
The relationship between sovereign power and private intellectual property rights has been one of the most contested and consequential questions in the design of patent systems since the earliest days of modern patent law. A patent grants its holder a monopoly a right to exclude all others, including the state, from using the patented invention
Government Use of Patents – Section 99 to 103 of the Patents Act, 1970 Read More »
The commercial value of a patent lies not only in the right to exclude others from using the patented invention but in the capacity to transfer, assign and transmit that right to move it through the marketplace as a fungible asset that can be bought, sold, mortgaged, inherited and incorporated into the complex webs of
Patent Assignment and Transmission in India – Section 68 and 69 Read More »
Among the most practically significant yet doctrinally complex provisions of the Patents Act, 1970 is Section 107A, inserted into the Act by the Patents (Amendment) Act, 2002. In the two decades since its insertion, Section 107A has become one of the most contested and commercially consequential provisions in Indian pharmaceutical patent law, engaging questions that
Few obligations in Indian patent law are as frequently misunderstood, as consistently neglected and as consequential in their implications as the requirement to work a patent in India. The Patents Act, 1970 does not treat the grant of a patent as the end of the patentee’s obligations to the public it treats it as the
Working of Patents in India – Section 83, Form 27 and Consequences Read More »
India’s accession to the Patent Cooperation Treaty on December 7, 1998, fundamentally transformed the landscape for both inbound and outbound patent filings. For Indian applicants seeking protection across multiple jurisdictions, the PCT provides a single-window mechanism of unmatched procedural efficiency. For foreign applicants targeting the Indian marketone of the world’s most consequential pharmaceutical, technology and
If the specification is the heart of a patent application, the claims are its spine. Every structural decision in the specification how the invention is described, what embodiments are disclosed, which prior art is distinguished ultimately serves the claims, because it is the claims alone that define the legal boundary of the monopoly that the
Claim Drafting for Indian Patents – Types, Scope and Strategy Read More »
The specification is the heart of a patent application. Every other element of the application the claims, the abstract, the drawings derives its meaning and its legal validity from the specification and the quality of the specification determines, more than any other single factor, both the prospect of grant and the value of the patent
Specification Writing in Indian Patent Practice – Complete and Provisional Read More »
Few provisions in the entire canon of global intellectual property law have attracted as much sustained attention, controversy and scholarly debate as Section 3(d) of the Patents Act, 1970. In the two decades since India inserted this provision into its patent statute as part of the 2005 amendment that brought the country into compliance with
Section 3(d) and the Evergreening Debate in Indian Pharma Patents Read More »