Professional law & ethics

1. THE PATENTS
ACT,1970
(as amended in 2005)
By-Group 6 (Sec. B)

2. INTRODUCTION
• The Uruguay Round ( or the last
GATT Round) created an
Organization called WTO on
Jan1,1995 to resolve trade
disputes among member
countries.
• The Uruguay agreement required
the member countries to enter
into an agreement on Intellectual
Property Rights to establish a
common scheme of protection to
be given by all member countries.
The agreement was called TRIPs.
• It covered Patents, Copyrights,
Trademarks, Designs and
Geographical Indications.

3. The Patents Act , 1970
• The Act contains XXIII Chapters which are related
to patenting procedures , International
Arrangement and other miscellaneous matters.
• The Act is regulated by Patents Rules (as
amended in 2006) which contains information
regarding , fees , forms etc.
• Under this Act, the Govt. of India is also
authorized to make rules for carrying out the
purposes of the Act.

4. WHAT IS A PATENT ?
• Patent is a grant or right to
exclude others from making,
using or selling one's invention
and includes right to license
others to make, use or sell it.
• It is an official document
conferring a right to an inventor
for a term of years to make, use
and sell his invention or the
monopoly or right so granted.

5. WHAT IS AN INVENTION ?
•Invention means any new and useful-
(I) art, process, method or manner of manufacture;
(ii) machine, apparatus or other article;
(iii) product produced by manufacture;
and includes any new and useful improvement of any of them.
•The new product or process involves an “inventive step” which means, a feature
of an invention that involves technical advancement as compared to the existing
knowledge or having economic significance or both and that makes the invention
not obvious to a person skilled in the art .
•Thus, for an invention to get patent rights , it should fulfil three prerequisites-
Novelty
Non-obviousness
Usefulness

6. SINGLE INVENTIVE STEP
• A single invention or a group of invention can
be linked to form a single inventive step
• A single inventive step may give rise to a
number of independent claims
• Where a group of inventions is claimed under
one application, the requirement of unity of
invention is fulfilled only when there is a
technical relationship among these inventions

7. WHO CAN BE A PATENTEE ?
• Persons entitled to apply for patents-
True and first inventor
His / Her Assignee
Legal Representative of deceased inventor
assignee
Any Partnership , Company , AOP , BOI

8. NON-PATENTABLE ITEMS
• INVENTIONS RELATING TO ATOMIC ENERGY
 No patent shall be granted in respect of an invention relating to
atomic energy falling within section 20(1) of the Atomic Energy Act,
1962
• THINGS THAT ARE NOT INVENTIONS
 Things obviously contrary to established natural laws
 Mere discovery of scientific principle, new property, new use of a
known substance
 Which causes serious prejudice to human , animal , plant life or
environment
 Discovery of micro organism , mineral or natural gas
 A method of agriculture or horticulture
 Any process for the medical treatment of human beings , animals or
plants to make them disease free

9. NON-PATENTABLE ITEMS CONTD.
 any mathematical , business method , computer program or
algorithms
 any literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work , aesthetic
creation , cinematographic works or television productions
 an invention which is a traditional knowledge or which is an
aggregation or duplication of known properties of
traditionally known component or components
 a substance obtained by a mere admixture resulting only in
the aggregation of the properties of the components or a
process for producing such substance
 the mere arrangement or re-arrangement or duplication of
known devices each functioning independently of one
another in a known way;

10. IMPORTANT AMENDMENTS
• Patent right can be claimed on a Product or a Process. For
e.g. Antibiotic is a product and its preparation is a chemical
process.
• But, prior to 2005 Amendment of Patent Act, in India an
individual could claim patent for process only and not
product. Reason-industrial development , affordable price ,
reverse engineering esp. in the pharmaceutical industry.
• Certain products which could not claim patent were- food,
medicine, alloys , optical glass, semi-conductors and inter-
metallic compounds

11. IMPORTANT AMENDMENTS
• Due to the intervention of GATT , the distinction
between product and process was done away with
w.e.f. January 1 , 2005.
• Earlier seeds and organisms could not be patented, but
after TRIPs recommendations India enacted a separate
Act-Biological Diversity Act , 2002 to protect the rights
of breeders and innovators of new forms of seeds and
plants.
• Prior to Jan.,2005 Amendment , patent right was
conferred for 14 years . But, now it has been raised to
20 years.

12. GRANT OF PATENT PROCESS

13. WORKING OF PATENT
COMPULSORY LICENSING
• Prior to 2005 Amendments , a patentee was given a 3-year
period to put the invention into use.
• If during this time ‘reasonable requirements of the public are
not satisfied or the prices charged are unreasonable’ , then
the Controller of Patents on the application by the CG would
endorse the remark ’ Licences of Right’ against the invention
in the register and advertise it in the official gazette.
• For products like food , drug and medicines , Licences of Right
was deemed endorsed after the expiry of 3 years.
• But, as per TRIPs recommendations, there has been
significant changes made regarding compulsory licensing by
the 2002 Amendment.

14. INTERNATIONAL ARRANGEMENTS
• Chapter XXII of the Act provides international
arrangement with countries outside India
• This arrangement grants the patentee-citizen of
that country to have similar rights and privileges
as are granted to the patentee-citizen of India .
E.g. India is member of the Paris Convention .
• Accordingly , the Central Govt. declares in the
Official Gazette such country to be a convention
country for the purpose of this Act.

15. SUITS & APPEALS
• Suits concerning infringement of patent shall
be file in District Court.
• But , if the counter claim for revocation of
patent is made by the defendant , then the
suit shall be transferred to the High Court.
• Appeals can be filed against the decision of
the Controller of Patents to the Appellate
Board formed by the Central Government.

16. THANK YOU