Table of Contents

Be it enacted by Parliament in the twenty first year of the Republic of India as follows:-

Short title extent and commencement

1. (1) This Act may be called the Patents Act, 1970.

(2) It extends to the whole of India.

(3) It shall come into force on such date* as the Central Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, appoint:

Provided that different dates may be appointed for different provisions of this Act, and any reference in any such provision to the commencement of this Act shall be construed as a reference to the coming into force of that provision.

Definition and interpretation

2. (1) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,-

a. "assignee" includes the legal representative of a deceased assignee and references to the assignee of the legal representative or assignee of that person;

b. "Controller" means the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks referred to in section 73;

c. "convention application" means an application for a patent made by virtue of section 135;

d. "convention country" means a country notified as such under sub-section (1) of Section 133;

e. "district court" has the meaning assigned to that expression by the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908'

f. "exclusive licence" means a licence from a patentee which confers on the licensee, or on the licensee and persons authorised by him, to the exclusion of all other persons (including the patentee), any right in respect of the patented invention, and "exclusive licensee" shall be construed accordingly:

g. "food" means any article of nourishment and includes any substance intended for the use of babies, invalids or convalescents as an article of food or drink;

h. "Government undertaking" means any industrial undertaking carried on —

(i) by a department of the Government, or

(ii) by a corporation established by a Central, Provincial or State Act, which is owned or controlled by the Government, or

(iii) by a Government company as defined in section 617 of the Companies Act, 1956,1 of 1956 and includes the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research and any other institution which is financed wholly or for the major part by the said Council;

​

i. "High Court" means,-

(i) in relation to the Union Territory of Delhi, ***the High Court of Delhi;

2[(ii) in relation to the Union Territory of Arunachal Pradesh and the Union Territory of Mizoram, the Gauhati High Court (the High Court of Assam, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Manipur and Tripura);]

(iii) in relation to the Union Territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the High Court at Calcutta;

(iv) in relation to the Union Territory of the [Lakshadweep], the High Court of Kerala;

(v) in relation to the Union Territory of Goa, Daman and Diu and the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, the High Court at Bombay;

(vi) in relation to the Union Territory of Pondicherry, the High Court at Madras;

(vii) in relation to the Union Territory of Chandigarh, the High Court of Punjab and Haryana; and

(viii) in relation to any other State, the High Court for that State;

j. "invention" means any new and useful-

i. art, process, method or manner of manufacture;

(ii) machine, apparatus or other article;

(iii) substance produced by manufacture,

and includes any new and useful improvement of any of them, and an alleged invention;

j. "legal representative" means a person who in law represents the estate of a deceased person;

k. "medicine or drug" includes-

i. all medicines for internal or external use of human beings or animals,

ii. all substances intended to be used for or in the diagnosis, treatment, mitigation or prevention of diseases in human beings or animals,

iii. all substances intended to be used or in the maintenance of public health, or the prevention or control of any epidemic disease among human beings or animals,

iv. insecticides, germicides, fungicides, weedicides and all other substances intended to be used for the protection or preservation of plants,

v. all chemical substances which are ordinarily used as intermediates in the preparation or manufacture of any of the medicines or substances above referred to;

j. "patent" means a patent granted under this Act and includes for the purposes of sections 44, 49, 50, 51, 52, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 63, 65, 66, 68, 69, 70, 78, 134, 140, 153, 154, and 156 and Chapters XVI, XVII and XVIII, a patent granted under the Indian Patents and Designs Act, 1911;

k. "patent agent" means a person for the time being registered under this Act as a ​patent agent;

l. "patented article" and "patented process" mean respectively an article or process in respect of which a patent is in force;

m."patentee" means the person for the time being entered on the register as the grantee or proprietor of the patent;

n. "patent of addition" means a patent granted in accordance with section 54;

o. "patent office" means the patent office referred to in section 74;

p. "person" includes the Government;

q. "person interested" includes a person engaged in, or in promoting, research in the same field as that to which the invention relates;

r. "prescribed" means, in relation to proceedings before a High Court, prescribed by rules made by the High Court, and in other cases, prescribed by rules made under this Act;

s. "prescribed manner" includes the payment of the prescribed fee;

t. "priority date" has the meaning assigned to it by section 11;

u. "register" means the register of patents referred to in section 67;

v. "true and first inventor" does not include either the first importer of an invention into India, or a person to whom an invention is first communicated from outside India.

2. In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires, any reference –

a. To the Controller shall be construed as including a reference to any officer discharging the functions of the Controller in pursuance of section 73;

b. To the patent office shall be construed as including a reference to any branch office of the patent office.

3. What are not inventions

The following are not inventions within the meaning of this Act,

a. an invention which is frivolous or which claims anything obvious contrary to well established natural laws;

b. an invention the primary or intended use of which would be contrary to law or morality or injurious to public health;

c. the mere discovery of a scientific principle or the formulation of an abstract theory;

d. the mere discovery of any new property of new use for a known substance or of the mere use of a known process, machine or apparatus unless such known process results in a new product or employs at least one new reactant;

e. a substance obtained by a mere admixture resulting only in the aggregation of the properties of the components thereof or a process for producing such substance;

f. the mere arrangement or re-arrangement or duplication of known devices each functioning independently of one another in a known way;

g. a method or process of testing applicable during the process of manufacture for rendering the machine, apparatus or other equipment more efficient or for the improvement or restoration of the existing machine, apparatus or other equipment or for the improvement or control of manufacture;

h. a method of agriculture or horticulture;

i. any process for the medicinal, surgical, curative, prophylactic or other treatment of human beings or any process for a similar treatment of animals or plants to render ​them free of disease or to increase their economic value or that of their products.

4. Inventions relating to atomic energy not patentable No patent shall be granted in respect of an invention relating to atomic energy falling within sub-section (1) of Section 20 of the Atomic Energy Act, 1962.

33 of 1962

5.Inventions where only methods or processes of manufacture patentable

(1) In the case of inventions-

a.claiming substances intended for use, or capable of being used, as food or as medicine or drug, or

b.relating to substances prepared or produced by chemical processes (including alloys, optical glass, semi-conductors and inter-metallic compounds),

no patent shall be granted in respect of claims for the substances them selves, but claims for the methods or processes of manufacture shall be patentable.

(2) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (1), a claim for patent of an invention for a substance itself intended for use, or capable of being used, as medicine or drug, except the medicine or drug specified under sub-clause (v) of clause (1) of sub-section (1) of section 2, may be made and shall be dealt, without prejudice to the other provisions of this Act, in the manner provided in Chapter IVA.]

6. Persons entitled to apply for patents

(1) Subject to the provisions contained in section 134, an application for a patent for an invention may be made by any of the following persons, that is to say,-

a. by any person claiming to be the true and first inventor of the invention;

b. by any person being the assignee of the person claiming to be the true and first inventor in respect of the right to make such an application;

c. by the legal representative of any deceased person who immediately before his death was entitled to make such an application.

(2) An application under sub-section (1) may be made by any of the persons preferred to therein either alone or jointly with any other person.

7. Form of application

(1) Every application for a patent shall be for one invention only and shall be made in the prescribed form and filed in the patent office.

(2) Where the application is made by virtue of an assignment of the right to apply for a patent for the invention, there shall be furnished with the application, or within such period as may be prescribed after the filing of the application, proof of the right to make the ​application.

(3) Every application under this section shall state that the applicant is in possession of the invention and shall name the owner claiming to be the true and first inventor; and where the person so claiming is not the applicant or one of the applicants, the application shall contain a declaration that the applicant believes the person so named to be the true and first inventor.

(4) Every such application (not being a convention application) shall be accompanied by a provisional or a complete specification.

8. Information and undertaking regarding foreign applications

(1) Where an applicant for a patent under this Act is prosecuting either alone or jointly with any other person an application for a patent in any country outside India in respect of the same or substantially the same invention, or where to his knowledge such an application is being prosecuted by some person through whom he claims or by some person deriving title from him, he shall file along with his application -

a. a statement setting out the name of the country where the application is being prosecuted, the serial number and date of filing of the application and such other particulars as may be prescribed; and

b. an undertaking that, up to the date of the acceptance of his complete specification filed in India, he would keep the Controller informed in writing, from time to time, of details of the nature referred to in clause (a) in respect of every other application relating to the same or substantially the same invention, if any, filed in any country outside India subsequently to the filing of the statement referred to in the aforesaid clause, within the prescribed time.

(2) The Controller may also require the applicant to furnish, as far as may be available to the applicant, details relating to the objections, if any, taken to any such application as is referred to in sub-section (1) on the ground that the invention is lacking in novelty or patentability, the amendments effected in the specifications, the claims allowed in respect thereof and such other particulars as he may require.

9. Provisional and complete specifications

(1) Where an application for a patent (not being a convention application) is accompanied by a provisional specification, a complete specification shall be filed within twelve months from the date of filing of the application, and if the complete specification is not so filed the application shall be deemed to be abandoned: Provided that the complete specification may be filed at any time after twelve months but within fifteen months from the date aforesaid, if a request to that effect is made to the Controller and the prescribed fee is paid on or before the date on which the complete specification is filed.

(2) Where two or more applications in the name of the same applicant are accompanied by provisional specifications in respect of inventions which are cognate or of which one is a modification of another and the Controller is of opinion that the whole of such inventions are such as to constitute a single invention and may properly be included in one patent, he may allow one complete specification to be filed in respect of all such provisional specifications.

(3) Where an application for a patent (not being a convention application) is accompanied by a specification purporting to be a complete specification, the Controller may, if the applicant so requests at any time before the acceptance of the specification, direct that such specification shall be treated for the purposes of this Act as a provisional specification and proceed with the application accordingly.

​(4) Where a complete specification has been filed in pursuance of an application for a patent accompanied by a provisional specification or by a specification treated by virtue of a direction under sub-section (3) as a provisional specification, the Controller may, if the applicant so requests at any time before the acceptance of the complete specification, cancel the provisional specification and post-date the application to the date of filing of the complete specification.

10 Contents of specifications

(1) Every specification, whether provisional or complete, shall describe the invention and shall begin with a title sufficiently indicating the subject-matter to which the invention relates.

(2) Subject to any rules that may be made in this behalf under this Act, drawings may, and shall, if the Controller so requires, be supplied for the purposes of any specification, whether complete or provisional; and any drawings so supplied shall,unless the Controller otherwise directs, be deemed to form part of the specification, and references in this Act to a specification shall be construed accordingly.

(3) If, in any particular case, the Controller considers that an application should be further supplemented by a model or sample of anything illustrating the invention or alleged to constitute an invention, such model or sample as he may require shall be furnished before the acceptance of the application, but such model or sample shall not be deemed to form part of the specification.

(4) Every complete specification shall-

a. fully and particularly describe the invention and its operation or use and the method by which it is to be performed;

b. disclose the best method of performing the invention which is known to the applicant and for which he is entitled to claim protection;and

c. end with a claim or claims defining the scope of the invention for which protection is claimed.

(5) The claim or claims of a complete specification shall relate to a single invention, shall be clear and succinct and shall be fairly based on the matter disclosed in the specification and shall, in the case of an invention such as is referred to in section 5, relate to a single method or process of manufacture.

(6) A declaration as to the inventorship of the invention shall, in such cases as may be prescribed, be furnished in the prescribed form with the complete specification or within such period as may be prescribed after the filing of that specification.

(7) Subject to the foregoing provisions of this section, a complete specification filed after a provisional specification may include claims in respect of developments of, or additions to, the invention which was described in the provisional specification, being developments or additions in respect of which the applicant would be entitled under the provisions of section 6 to make a separate application for a patent.

11. Priority dates of claims of a complete specification

(1) There shall be a priority date for each claim of a complete specification.

(2) Where a complete specification is filed in pursuance of a single application accompanied by-

a. a provisional specification; or

b. a specification which is treated by virtue of a direction under sub-section (3) of section 9 as a provisional specification,and the claim is fairly based on the matter disclosed in the specification referred to in clause (a) or clause (b), the priority date ​of that claim shall be the date of the filing of the relevant specification.

(3) Where the complete specification is filed or proceeded with in pursuance of two or more applications accompanied by such specifications as are mentioned in sub-section (2) and the claim is fairly based on the matter disclosed.

a. in one of those specifications, the priority date of that claim shall be the date of the filing of the application accompanied by that specification;

b. partly in one and partly in another, the priority date of that claim shall be the date of the filing of the application accompanied by the specification of the later date.

(4) Where the complete specification has been filed in pursuance of a further application made by virtue of sub-section (1) of section 16 and the claim is fairly based on the matter disclosed in any of the earlier specifications, provisional or complete, as the case may be, the priority date of that claim shall be the date of the filing of that specification in which the matter was first disclosed.

(5) Where, under the foregoing provisions of this section, any claim of a complete specification would, but for the provisions of this sub-section, have two or more priority dates, the priority date of that claim shall be the earlier or earliest of those dates.

(6) In any case to which sub-sections (2), (3), (4) and (5) do not apply, the priority date of a claim shall, subject to the provisions of section 137, be the date of filing of the complete specification.

(7) The reference to the date of the filing of the application or of the complete specification in this section shall, in cases where there has been a post-dating under section 9 or section 17 or, as the case may be, an ante-dating under section 16, be a reference to the date as so post-dated or ante-dated.

(8) A claim in a complete specification of a patent shall not be invalid by reason only of-

a. the publication or use of the invention so far as claimed in that claim on or after the priority date of such claim; or

b. the grant of another patent which claims the invention, so far as claimed in the first mentioned claim, in a claim of the same or a later priority date.

12. Examination of application

(1) When the complete specification has been led in respect of an application for a patent, the application and the specification relating thereto shall be referred by the Controller to an Examiner for making a report to him in respect of the following matters, namely:-

a. whether the application and the specification relating thereto are in accordance with the requirements of this Act and of any rules made thereunder;

b. whether there is any lawful ground of objection to the grant of the patent under this Act in pursuance of the application;

c. the result of investigations made under section 13; and

d. any other matter which may be prescribed.

(2) The Examiner to whom the application and the specification relating thereto are referred under sub-section (1) shall ordinarily make the report to the Controller within a period of eighteen months from the date of such reference.

​13. Search for Anticipation by previous publication and by prior claim

(1) The Examiner to whom an application for a patent is referred under section 12 shall make investigation for the purpose of ascertaining whether the invention so far as claimed in any claim of the complete specification-