KSLU Solved Question Papers
Intellectual Property Rights I
Previous Year Question Paper with Solution
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) · Sem 9
2021 Mar Examination
munotes.in
Mumbai
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) Sem 9 Intellectual Property Rights I 2021 Mar Question Paper with Solutions
First published on munotes.in on 21 October 2026.
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Contents
The questions below are the paper as Karnataka State Law University set it at the 2021 Mar examination, in the order it was set.
MarksPage
MarksPage
The Paper as Set
The questions in this volume are the questions asked at the 2021 Mar examination, reproduced as Karnataka State Law University set them, in the order it set them. Long reading passages are shortened to their first and last lines and our summary; the original paper prints them in full. Only the answers are ours. See the original question paper.
Duration 3 hours · Total marks 80 · 20 questions answered
How to use this volume
Solve the paper first, under exam conditions and against the clock. Then read the answers here and mark your own. Reading a solution before attempting the question feels productive and teaches very little, because recognising an answer is not the same as being able to write one.
Q1
(a)What are the factors responsible for the growth of patent law ? Explain.[10]
Answer
For full marks, cover: what "growth of patent law" means (more countries, more fields, longer terms, stronger enforcement, and balancing limits); the factors, each with the change it produced: (1) the State's wish for new industries (Venice 1474; Statute of Monopolies 1624); (2) the industrial revolution and science-based industry; (3) the disclosure bargain (Biswanath Prasad); (4) international trade (Paris 1883, PCT 1970, TRIPS 1994; WT/DS50); (5) national development policy (Tek Chand, Ayyangar Report 1959, the 1970 Act, original section 53); (6) new technologies (Monsanto; section 3(k)); (7) public health (Novartis; Doha 2001; section 92A; Bayer); (8) the knowledge economy and start-ups (National IPR Policy 2016; rules 24C, 131); (9) institutions and enforcement (Appellate Board 2003 to 2021; Commercial Courts Act 2015); (10) ease of doing business (Jan Vishwas Act 2026); a table.
What "growth" means
Patent law has grown in five ways. It has spread to more countries. It covers more fields of technology. Its term is longer. Enforcement is stronger and more international. And it has grown limits, such as compulsory licences, to balance the public interest. Each growth has a cause.
1. The State's wish for new industries
Patents began as a tool of economic policy. In 1474 Venice passed the first general patent law. It gave ten years' protection to anyone who brought a new and ingenious device into the city, to attract skilled craftsmen. England's kings later abused the grant by selling monopolies over ordinary trades. The Statute of Monopolies, 1624 abolished those monopolies but saved grants of up to fourteen years to the "true and first inventor" of new manufactures. The idea that a patent rewards a real invention, not royal favour, began here.
2. The industrial revolution and science-based industry
Machines, steam power and later chemistry made invention a business. Factories needed costly research, and owners wanted protection before investing. So countries passed modern patent statutes in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. India's first law, Act VI of 1856, came in this period. The rise of the chemical and pharmaceutical industries in the twentieth century pushed patent law into new and valuable fields.
3. The disclosure bargain
Society gains when inventions are published instead of kept secret. A patent buys that disclosure with a limited monopoly.
In Biswanath Prasad Radhey Shyam v. Hindustan Metal Industries, (1979) 2 SCC 511, a patent for a method of holding brass utensils on a lathe was challenged. The Supreme Court revoked it as a mere workshop improvement. It explained that patent law exists to encourage research and industrial progress. The price of the monopoly is disclosure, after which the invention passes to the public. This bargain is the main justification on which patent law has grown.
4. International trade
Patents are territorial, but trade is not. Inventors needed protection abroad.
- Paris Convention, 1883. It gave national treatment and a twelve-month right of priority.
- Patent Cooperation Treaty, 1970. One international application could lead to patents in many countries.
- TRIPS Agreement, 1994. It made minimum standards binding on all WTO members: patents in all fields of technology, a twenty-year term, and enforcement through WTO dispute settlement.
TRIPS forced change in India. In India: Patent Protection for Pharmaceutical and Agricultural Chemical Products, WT/DS50, the United States complained. India had no legal "mailbox" for product patent applications for medicines and agrochemicals. It also had no system of exclusive marketing rights. The panel and the Appellate Body found against India, and the reports were adopted on 16 January 1998. India then passed the Patents (Amendment) Act, 1999. The 2002 and 2005 Amendments followed, bringing the twenty-year term and product patents for medicines.
5. National development policy
A country shapes its patent law to suit its stage of development. The Tek Chand Committee (1948 to 1950) found that the Patents and Designs Act, 1911 served foreign patentees, who rarely worked their patents in India. Justice N. Rajagopala Ayyangar's report of September 1959 recommended only process patents for food, medicines and chemicals.
The Patents Act, 1970, in force from 20 April 1972, did exactly that. As enacted, section 53 gave such process patents a short term. It was five years from sealing or seven years from the date of the patent, whichever was shorter. Other patents lasted fourteen years. Indian firms could make the same medicine by a new process, and the generic drug industry grew.
6. New technologies
Each new technology raises the question whether patent law should cover it.
- Biotechnology. In Monsanto Technology LLC v. Nuziveedu Seeds Ltd, (2019) 3 SCC 381, Monsanto sued on its Bt cotton patent, and the defendants said section 3(j) excluded it. The Delhi High Court's Division Bench declared the claims unpatentable at the interim stage. The Supreme Court set that aside on 8 January 2019. It held that the question needed expert evidence at a full trial.
- Software. Section 3(k) excludes a computer programme "per se", but inventions with a technical effect may be patented.
7. Public health
The growth of patents over medicines produced its own limits.
- Section 3(d). In Novartis AG v. Union of India, (2013) 6 SCC 1, the Supreme Court refused a patent for a new crystalline form of the cancer drug imatinib. A new form of a known substance needs enhanced therapeutic efficacy.
- The Doha Declaration, 2001 affirmed that TRIPS should be read to protect public health. India added section 92A in 2005, allowing compulsory licences to export medicines to countries that cannot make them.
- Compulsory licences. In Bayer Corporation v. Union of India, 2014 SCC OnLine Bom 963, Natco got a licence to sell Bayer's cancer drug sorafenib at about Rs 8,800 a month instead of about Rs 2,80,000. The Bombay High Court upheld it.
8. The knowledge economy and start-ups
India's National IPR Policy of 12 May 2016 aims at "Creative India; Innovative India". Start-ups, small entities and women applicants may seek expedited examination (rule 24C). Since 2024, working statements in Form 27 are filed once every three financial years (rule 131).
9. Institutions and enforcement
Specialised bodies made patents easier to enforce. The Intellectual Property Appellate Board heard patent appeals from 2007 until its abolition on 4 April 2021, when its work passed to the High Courts. Patent suits are commercial disputes under the Commercial Courts Act, 2015.
10. Ease of doing business
The Jan Vishwas Act, 2026 reduced criminal liability, omitting section 119 of the Patents Act from 1 June 2026.
Summary
| Factor | Result in law |
|---|---|
| New industries | Venice 1474; Statute of Monopolies 1624 |
| Disclosure | Complete specification; public domain on expiry |
| Trade | Paris 1883; PCT 1970; TRIPS 1994 |
| Development policy | Process patents and short terms, 1970 |
| New technology | Biotechnology and software questions |
| Public health | Sections 3(d), 84, 92A |
| Start-ups | Expedited examination, lighter compliance |
Conclusion. Patent law grew because States wanted new industries, because industry needed protection for costly research, and because society wanted inventions disclosed (Biswanath Prasad). Trade carried it across borders through Paris, the PCT and TRIPS, which forced India's 1999 to 2005 amendments (WT/DS50). Development policy shaped the 1970 Act. New technologies (Monsanto) widened its reach, while public health (Novartis, Bayer) set its limits.
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