The Rights of a Patentee

In one line

A patentee may stop other people from making, using, selling or importing the invention in India, and can do nothing else with the patent as such.

In the wording a student can write in an exam: by section 48 of the Patents Act, 1970, subject to the other provisions of the Act and the conditions specified in section 47, a patent granted under the Act confers on the patentee, where the subject matter is a product, the exclusive right to prevent third parties who do not have his consent from the act of making, using, offering for sale, selling or importing for those purposes that product in India; and where the subject matter is a process, the exclusive right to prevent third parties from the act of using that process and from the act of using, offering for sale, selling or importing for those purposes the product obtained directly by that process in India.

The provision itself

Section 48 opens with two qualifications. "Subject to the other provisions contained in this Act and the conditions specified in section 47". Everything that follows is already cut down by section 47's four standing conditions, by Chapter XVI's compulsory licences, by Chapter XVII's Government use, and by section 107A. Chapters 350, 670 and 770 work them.

Clause (a), for a product patent. The exclusive right to prevent third parties, who do not have the patentee's consent, from the act of making, using, offering for sale, selling or importing for those purposes that product in India.

Clause (b), for a process patent. The exclusive right to prevent third parties, who do not have the patentee's consent, from the act of using that process, and from the act of using, offering for sale, selling or importing for those purposes the product obtained directly by that process in India.

Broken down

"Exclusive right to prevent". The right is negative. It is a right to stop, not a right to do. Chapter 10 works that, and it is the single most examined misconception in the subject.

Five acts for a product. Making, using, offering for sale, selling, importing. Each is a separate act, so a person who only imports infringes as fully as one who manufactures.

"Offering for sale" is a separate act. A defendant who advertises the article but has not yet sold one is infringing. That matters at a trade fair, in a catalogue and on a website.

"For those purposes". The words attach to importing: importing for the purposes of using, offering for sale or selling. Importing a single article for personal study is dealt with by section 47(3) and by section 107A, which chapters 350 and 1080 work.