Revocation of patents in India – High Court clarifies position on Section 8

I had recently written about the importance of disclosing status of foreign applications to the Indian Patent Office and how non-compliance can result in revocation of patents under Section 64 (1) (m) of the Patents Act. The Delhi High Court on November 7, 2014 delivered a landmark ruling on Section 8 and clarified that non-compliance would not result in automatic revocation of patent and that the power of revocation under Section 64 (1) (m) was discretionary in nature.

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Magic and Intellectual Property: Very Tricky!

Magic tricks don’t cease to surprise and most often, they leave us befuddled with a lot of questions. But if we knew how the trick was performed, would we be as amused? Probably not. And that’s exactly why the magicians’ community thinks it is important to protect their tricks under the law. This is where intellectual property comes into play and the question is which branch of IP will protect magic tricks. In this article, I will discuss the patentability (if at all patentable),…

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Importance of disclosing status of foreign applications to the Indian Patent Office under Form 3

Section 8 of the Patents Act, 1970 casts an obligation upon the applicant of a patent under this Act who is also prosecuting the same or substantially the same invention outside India, to disclose details regarding corresponding foreign applications from time to time. It was based on the suggestions of Ayyangar Committee Report that Section 8 was incorporated into the Patents Act. It was with a view to ensure that the Indian Examiners are in the know of the status of corresponding foreign…

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Indian Patent Office extends deadline to submit comments on revised Guidelines for Examination of Pharmaceutical Patents

The Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trademarks (CGPDTM) released a document titled the draft guidelines for examination of Patent applications in the field of pharmaceuticals on February 28, 2014 which was open for comments until March 31, 2014 which was eventually extended to April 4, 2014.

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Indian Patent Office reiterates on biological material deposition before making patent application

In its notification on July 2, 2014, the Indian Patent Office (IPO) forewarns patent applicants the consequences of not depositing a sample of the biological material with an International Depository Authority (IDA).

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IPAB makes the Indian Patent Office see the importance of doing things right the first time

In a spate of orders recently (see here, here and here), the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) has asked the Indian Patent Office (IPO) to consider those matters afresh because the IPO’s orders lacked reasoning.

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Revocation of patents in India – A Fork in the road

In a country like India where a patent is granted after fighting tooth and nail, “revocation” is arguably the most dreaded term for any patent-holder. A patent granted in India can sought to be revoked for more than one reason and statutorily in more than one forum.

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Statement of working for patents and confidentiality

In my earlier post on this matter, I discussed the importance of filing the statement of working for a patent without delving into the aspect of confidentiality or lack thereof when such statements are made. Statutorily, the statement of working may be published by the Patent Office and so the Patent Office has made available online the statements of working filed for the year 2012.

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Compulsory Licensing in India

We bring you another guest post by Ratnavel Pandian. In this post, Ratnavel discusses the Indian statutory provisions for compulsory licensing and instances of compulsory licensing in India.

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