PATENTS ACT

Introduction
The patent office is headquartered at Kolkata with branches in Chennai, New Delhi and Mumbai,
but the office of the CGPDTM is in Mumbai. The office of the Patent Information System and
National Institute for Intellectual Property Management is at Nagpur. The Controller General
(CG), who supervises the administration of the Patents Act, the Designs Act, and the Trade
Marks Act, also advises the Government on matters relating to these subjects. O.P. Gupta is the
current CG and took charge on 16 November 2015. Under the office of CGPDTM, a
Geographical Indications Registry has been established in Chennai to administer
the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999.

The Indian Patent Office has 526 Patent Examiners, 97 Assistant Controllers, 42 Deputy
Controllers, 1 Joint Controller, and 1 Senior Joint Controller, all of whom operate from four
branches. Although the designations of the Controllers differ, all of them (with the exception of
the Controller General) have equal authority in administering the Patents Act. An Indian Patent
Examiner is mandated to search for prior art and for objections under any other ground as
provided in the Patent's Act, then to report to the Controller, who has the power to either accept
or reject Examiners' reports. Unlike the system at the USPTO /EPO/JPO, Examiners at IPO have
only recommending power and the controllers are empowered by statute either to accept or
refuse their recommendations. Examiners' reports to the Controller are not open to the public
unless courts allow it (section 144 of the Patents Act). A Parliamentary committee has
recommended repealing S144.

INDIAN PATENTS ACT 1970 AND RECENT AMENDMENTS

The patent system was first introduced in India in 1856

The Act of 1856 provided exclusive right to the patent holder for a period of 14 years

The Indian Patents and Design Act, 1911 replaced the above act but, the provisions
remained the same
 Post-Independence, a need was felt to revamp the laws related to patents so as to reduce
the stronghold of MNCs (Multi National Corporations) and provide an impetus to local
industrial growth

Considerable efforts went into formulating the Indian Patents Act, which was introduced
as a Bill in Parliament of India in 1970 and finally enacted from 20th April 1972.

The Indian Patent Act, 1970 was modeled to promote the industrial process development
and to encourage inventions and also secure that the inventions are worked in India on a
commercial scale

Important Provisions of Indian Patent Act (IPA) 1970

The IPA 1970 prescribed product patents for all inventions except food, medicine, drugs
and substances produced by chemical process
For these only process patents could be registered
The patent protection period was 14 (fourteen) years, the shortest period granted by any
country
In fact, in case of food, chemicals, pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals, the patent period
was only 5 years from the date of sealing or 7 (seven) years from the date of patent filing,
whichever was lesser
Compulsory Licensing: In case of non-working of patent i.e. if the patent holder does
not commercialize his invention, the Act prescribed that after three years of sealing of a
patent, any other person can apply for compulsory licensing on the grounds of public
benefit
Compulsory Working of Patent: The act mandated the compulsory working
(manufacturing of products registered under IPA 1970) of all the patented products in
India. This resulted in technology transfer and infrastructure building leading to creation
of huge number of technical jobs
The basic philosophy of IPA 1970 was to disallow monopoly but instead encourage
research and help in overall growth in these sectors.
 Besides agriculture and horticulture, biological materials and life forms are excluded
from the scope of patentability. Space and atomic energy was also outside the patent
ambit

The recent amendment to the Indian Patents Act 1970

India is original signatory to WTO (World Trade Organization), which was born on 1st
January 1995

India along with 137 countries signed the WTO treaty on 15th April 1994 to bring it in
effect from 1st of January 1995

TRIPs (Trade Related aspects of Intellectual Property), which is one of the important part
of WTO, under which, product patenting was required to be introduced by WTO member
countries effective from 1995. Since a patent right is trade related, India, being a member
of the World Trade Organization is mandated to make its patent-related laws (the Patent
Act 1970) and other trade-related IPR laws conform to the Trade Related Aspects of
Intellectual Property Rights (known as TRIPS) norms

Many developing countries, including India, however, were given a 10-years grace period
for introduction of product patenting till 1st January 2005

The basic objective of the recent amendments to the Patent Act was to introduce product
patenting in pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals and food sectors for which IPA 1970 was
granting process patents

The Act has been amended twice in 1999 and 2002

In 2001, the provision of exclusive marketing rights (EMRs) was introduced. This was a
transitional arrangement till the introduction of the TRIPs-mandated product patents in
pharmaceutical, agrochemicals and food sectors.