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Law of Patents
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LLM · Group 3 Law of Intellectual Property and Information Technology
2015 Examination
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LLM Group 3 Law of Intellectual Property and Information Technology Law of Patents 2015 Question Paper with Solutions
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First published on munotes.in on 13 September 2026.
This edition revised 14 September 2026.
Published by munotes.in, Mumbai.
Model answers written and edited by the munotes.in editorial desk.
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The University does not publish an official answer key for this paper. The answers in this volume are model answers, written to show how a full-mark answer is built. They are a study aid, not an authority on what an examiner marked.
The question paper reproduced here is the paper as set by the University of Mumbai at the 2015 examination.
The law in these answers is stated as at September 2026, and four things date every textbook on this subject. THE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY APPELLATE BOARD NO LONGER EXISTS: the Tribunals Reforms Act, 2021 omitted sections 116, 117, 117B, 117C and 117D of the Patents Act and substituted HIGH COURT for Appellate Board in section 117A, so appeals from the Controller and revocation petitions under section 64 now lie to the High Court, which is why the Delhi High Court framed its Intellectual Property Rights Division Rules in 2022. THE PENAL CHAPTER HAS BEEN CUT DOWN TWICE: the Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Act, 2023 took effect for this Act on 1 August 2024 and turned sections 120, 122(1), 122(2) and 123 into PENALTIES imposed by an adjudicating officer under a new section 124A with an appeal under section 124B, omitting section 121 altogether; and the Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Act, 2026, passed on 2 April 2026, took effect for this Act on 1 JUNE 2026, OMITTING SECTION 119 on falsification of the register in its entirety and adding a proviso to section 118 which, in the case of a contravention of section 39 only, disapplies it where in the opinion of the Central Government the invention was not relevant for defence purpose or atomic energy, so that section 118 is now the ONLY substantive criminal offence left in the Patents Act. THERE IS NO PATENT AMENDMENT ACT OF 2016, although one paper in this folder asks for its crucial features: the last amending Act is the Patents (Amendment) Act, 2005, and 2016 produced the Patents (Amendment) Rules, which introduced expedited examination and the startup category. AND THE RULES HAVE MOVED AGAIN: the Patents (Amendment) Rules, 2024, in force 15 March 2024, cut the time for requesting examination from forty eight months to thirty one, made the Form 27 statement of working triennial instead of annual, and codified the divisional application practice settled by the Division Bench in Syngenta Limited v. Controller of Patents and Designs on 13 October 2023.
Contents
The questions below are the paper as the University of Mumbai set it at the 2015 examination, in the order it was set.
MarksPage
MarksPage
The Paper as Set
The questions in this volume are the questions asked at the 2015 examination, reproduced as the University of Mumbai set them, in the order it set them. Nothing has been reworded, added or left out. Only the answers are ours. See the original question paper.
Duration 3 hours · Total marks 100 · 11 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.
SECTION I
QP Code 12215, printer's form BB-Con. 9048-15, the first paper on the scan
1. Question 1 is compulsory 2. Answer any Four Questions 3. Cite Relevant Case Law 4. Answer should be in legible handwriting · 100 Marks
1)a) What is a Patent? What is "inventive step" under the Patents Act of 1970? b) What inventions are not Patentable? c) Explain briefly the Procedure for obtaining a Patent under the Patents Act 1970.[25]
Answer
For full marks, cover: THIS QUESTION IS COMPULSORY on this paper and it has three parts, so budget the time before you start: about eight minutes on (a), ten on (b) and seven on (c). Part (a) is two definitions and the second one, inventive step, has a statutory definition with THREE limbs that most answers give as one. Part (b) is section 3 and section 4, and the marks are in grouping the clauses rather than listing them. Part (c) is a sequence, so write it as numbered steps with the section against each.
a) What is a patent, and what is an inventive step
A patent. Section 2(1)(m) defines a patent, unhelpfully, as a patent for any invention GRANTED UNDER THIS ACT. The content has to be built from sections 48 and 53. A patent is a STATUTORY MONOPOLY, granted by the State for a limited period, which entitles its holder to PREVENT others from making, using, offering for sale, selling or importing the patented product, or from using the patented process and dealing in the product obtained directly by it, in India, in exchange for a FULL PUBLIC DISCLOSURE of how the invention works. It lasts TWENTY YEARS FROM THE DATE OF FILING under section 53 and cannot be renewed.
Bishwanath Prasad Radhey Shyam v. Hindustan Metal Industries, (1979) 2 SCC 511, states the bargain in terms a candidate should be able to quote. The object of patent law is to ENCOURAGE SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH, NEW TECHNOLOGY AND INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS. The price of the monopoly is the disclosure of the invention at the Patent Office, which after the expiry of the period of the monopoly passes into the public domain. On the facts the Supreme Court revoked a patent for an improved device for producing utensil bodies, holding it a mere WORKSHOP IMPROVEMENT that any skilled workman would have arrived at.
What is an invention. Section 2(1)(j) defines an invention as A NEW PRODUCT OR PROCESS INVOLVING AN INVENTIVE STEP AND CAPABLE OF INDUSTRIAL APPLICATION. There are therefore three statutory requirements: NOVELTY, INVENTIVE STEP and INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY, and section 2(1)(ac) defines the third as capable of being MADE OR USED IN AN INDUSTRY.
Inventive step, section 2(1)(ja). The definition inserted in 2005 is the one to learn word for word. "Inventive step" means a FEATURE OF AN INVENTION that involves TECHNICAL ADVANCE as compared to the existing knowledge OR having ECONOMIC SIGNIFICANCE OR BOTH and that makes the invention NOT OBVIOUS TO A PERSON SKILLED IN THE ART.
Read carefully, the definition has two conditions joined by "and". The first is satisfied by technical advance or economic significance or both, so an invention that is commercially significant without being technically advanced may qualify. The second, NON-OBVIOUSNESS to the person skilled in the art, must always be satisfied and cannot be traded away. The person skilled in the art is a legal construct: neither a Nobel laureate nor an unskilled labourer, but a competent practitioner presumed to know the whole of the prior art in the field and to lack any inventive capacity of his own.
The Indian test of obviousness is that in Bishwanath Prasad: whether the alleged discovery lies so much OUT OF THE TRACK of what was known before as not naturally to suggest itself to a person thinking on the subject, and whether the improvement is a mere workshop result that a skilled workman could arrive at without the exercise of inventive faculty.
b) What inventions are not patentable
Two sections do this work, and they do different things. SECTION 3 lists what ARE NOT INVENTIONS within the meaning of the Act, so those subjects never reach the question of novelty at all. SECTION 4 bars patents for inventions relating to ATOMIC ENERGY falling within section 20(1) of the Atomic Energy Act, 1962.
The seventeen clauses of section 3 fall into five groups.
Frivolous or unlawful. Clause (a), an invention frivolous or claiming anything CONTRARY TO WELL ESTABLISHED NATURAL LAWS, which is how a perpetual motion machine is refused. Clause (b), an invention whose primary or intended use or commercial exploitation would be CONTRARY TO PUBLIC ORDER OR MORALITY or would cause serious prejudice to human, animal or plant life or health or to the environment.
Discoveries rather than inventions. Clause (c), the mere DISCOVERY of a scientific principle or the formulation of an ABSTRACT THEORY or the discovery of any LIVING THING OR NON-LIVING SUBSTANCE OCCURRING IN NATURE. Clause (d), the mere discovery of a NEW FORM of a known substance which does not result in the ENHANCEMENT OF THE KNOWN EFFICACY of that substance, or the mere discovery of any new property or new use for a known substance, or of the mere use of a known process, machine or apparatus unless it results in a new product or employs at least one new reactant. Its explanation deems salts, esters, ethers, polymorphs, metabolites, pure form, particle size, isomers, complexes, combinations and other derivatives of a known substance to be THE SAME SUBSTANCE unless they differ significantly in properties with regard to efficacy.
Clause (d) is the most litigated provision in the Act. In Novartis AG v. Union of India, (2013) 6 SCC 1, the appellant sought a patent for the BETA CRYSTALLINE FORM of imatinib mesylate, the anti-cancer drug sold as Glivec, relying on improved flow properties, better thermodynamic stability and lower hygroscopicity, and on a thirty per cent increase in bioavailability. The Supreme Court refused the patent. It held that in the pharmaceutical field "efficacy" in section 3(d) means THERAPEUTIC EFFICACY, that physical properties and even bioavailability do not by themselves establish it, and that section 3(d) sets up a SECOND TIER OF QUALIFYING STANDARDS for chemical and pharmaceutical substances over and above the general requirements of novelty and inventive step.
Mere arrangements and known combinations. Clause (e), a substance obtained by a MERE ADMIXTURE resulting only in the aggregation of the properties of the components. Clause (f), the MERE ARRANGEMENT OR RE-ARRANGEMENT or duplication of known devices each functioning independently of one another in a known way.
Methods and intellectual activity. Clause (h), a METHOD OF AGRICULTURE OR HORTICULTURE. Clause (i), any process for the MEDICINAL, SURGICAL, CURATIVE, PROPHYLACTIC, DIAGNOSTIC, THERAPEUTIC or other treatment of human beings, or any process for a similar treatment of animals to render them free of disease or to increase their economic value. Clause (k), a MATHEMATICAL OR BUSINESS METHOD OR A COMPUTER PROGRAMME PER SE OR ALGORITHMS. Clause (l), a LITERARY, DRAMATIC, MUSICAL OR ARTISTIC WORK or any other aesthetic creation including cinematographic works and television productions. Clause (m), a MERE SCHEME OR RULE OR METHOD OF PERFORMING MENTAL ACT or method of playing game. Clause (n), a PRESENTATION OF INFORMATION. Clause (o), TOPOGRAPHY OF INTEGRATED CIRCUITS.
The words PER SE in clause (k) carry a great deal of weight. In Ferid Allani v. Union of India, 2019 SCC OnLine Del 11867, decided on 12 December 2019, the Delhi High Court held that the bar is on computer programmes as such and not on every invention based on one, that the words per se were inserted precisely so that genuine inventions developed on computer programmes are not refused, and that the question is whether the invention makes a TECHNICAL CONTRIBUTION or produces a TECHNICAL EFFECT.
Living matter and traditional knowledge. Clause (j), PLANTS AND ANIMALS in whole or any part thereof other than micro-organisms, including seeds, varieties and species and essentially biological processes for production or propagation. Clause (p), an invention which in effect is TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE or an aggregation or duplication of known properties of traditionally known components. Clause (g), a method of agriculture apart, clause (p) is the provision the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library was built to serve.
c) The procedure for obtaining a patent
- Who may apply, section 6. The TRUE AND FIRST INVENTOR, his assignee, or the legal representative of a deceased person who was entitled to make the application. Section 2(1)(y) excludes from "true and first inventor" the first IMPORTER of an invention into India and a person to whom it was first COMMUNICATED FROM OUTSIDE INDIA.
- Filing, sections 7 and 9. An application in the prescribed form at the appropriate patent office, with a PROVISIONAL or a COMPLETE specification. If a provisional is filed the complete must follow WITHIN TWELVE MONTHS or the application is deemed abandoned.
- Publication, section 11A. No application is open to the public before EIGHTEEN MONTHS from the date of filing or priority, after which it is published; early publication may be requested. On publication the applicant gets like privileges and rights as if a patent had been granted, but cannot sue for infringement until grant.
- Request for examination, section 11B. An application is examined ONLY ON REQUEST. The period was FORTY EIGHT MONTHS and was REDUCED TO THIRTY ONE MONTHS by the Patents (Amendment) Rules, 2024, in force 15 March 2024. Rule 24C provides for EXPEDITED EXAMINATION, introduced by the Patents (Amendment) Rules, 2016 and available to startups, small entities, female applicants, government undertakings and those who chose the Indian Patent Office as their international searching authority.
- Examination and the first examination report, sections 12 and 13. The examiner reports on whether the application and specification comply with the Act, whether there is lawful ground of objection, and on ANTICIPATION by prior publication or prior claiming. The objections go to the applicant as a FIRST EXAMINATION REPORT, and the application must be PUT IN ORDER FOR GRANT within six months of it, extendable by three, the period having been reduced from twelve months by the 2016 Rules.
- Pre-grant opposition, section 25(1). After publication and before grant, ANY PERSON may oppose by representation on the eleven grounds listed, among them wrongful obtaining, prior publication, prior claiming, public knowledge or use, obviousness, non-patentability under sections 3 and 4, insufficiency, failure to disclose section 8 information, and anticipation by traditional knowledge. Since the 2024 Rules the Controller must first decide the MAINTAINABILITY of the representation.
- Grant, sections 43 and 45. Where the application is found in order the patent is granted, sealed and published, and the DATE OF THE PATENT is the date of FILING.
- Post-grant opposition, section 25(2). Within TWELVE MONTHS from the publication of the grant, any PERSON INTERESTED may oppose on substantially the same grounds, before an Opposition Board.
- Afterwards. Renewal fees under section 53 keep the patent alive for twenty years from filing; a working statement in FORM 27 must be filed under section 146(2), which the 2024 Rules changed from annually to ONCE EVERY THREE FINANCIAL YEARS; and an appeal from the Controller lies under section 117A to the HIGH COURT within three months.
Conclusion. A patent is a statutory monopoly for TWENTY YEARS FROM FILING, conferred by section 48 and paid for by the disclosure the specification makes, as Bishwanath Prasad Radhey Shyam v. Hindustan Metal Industries explains. An INVENTIVE STEP under section 2(1)(ja) is a feature involving technical advance or economic significance or both AND not obvious to a person skilled in the art, the second limb being indispensable. What is not patentable is fixed by SECTION 3, whose seventeen clauses exclude frivolous and immoral inventions, discoveries and new forms without enhanced efficacy as Novartis AG v. Union of India holds, mere admixtures and rearrangements, methods of agriculture and of medical treatment, business methods and computer programmes PER SE as Ferid Allani v. Union of India construes them, aesthetic creations, plants and animals, and traditional knowledge, and by SECTION 4 for atomic energy. The procedure runs from an application by the true and first inventor under section 6, through publication at eighteen months, a request for examination now within THIRTY ONE MONTHS, examination and the first examination report, pre-grant opposition under section 25(1), grant under section 43 dated back to filing, and post-grant opposition within twelve months under section 25(2).
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