Intellectual Property

Standing among the top 12 biotechnology destinations in the world, India’s biotechnology is growing rapidly at a compound annual rate of 20%. Even so, patent filing in this field has decreased. This could be attributed to more stringent criteria for patentability and grant of patents in this domain....

Where Competition Law is based on the principle that competition is desirable in a free market, IP Laws seek to promote innovation and safeguard the interests of inventors by granting monopolies. The intersection between the two has prompted a long-standing debate and revealed the need to strike a balance, so as to safeguard the rights of innovators and at the same time protect consumers....

Once the time period of a patent expires, the rights lapse and the invention enters the public domain. Double Patenting – multiple patents for the same invention – is an issue quite ambiguous. In India, especially, this appears to be a grey area and poses a need for debate....

When prosecuting a patent application or defending a revocation, there are routine requests for amendments of patent claims or descriptions. This brings to light the ambiguity surrounding the nature and extent of permissible amendments....

In the face of a series of IPAB decisions, the so far unchallenged practice of filing divisional applications has come under a re-evaluation. A discussion on these changes brings forth the implications of these decisions on future applicants....

Computers, constantly evolving with a host of new inventions, have lead to a barrage of patent applications. So also are evolving the set of parameters to evaluate Computer Implemented Inventions leading to debate on their patentability and standard tests to assess CIIs....

The enforcement of working requirement by the Indian Patent Office has sparked a continuing debate on the matter. This discussion reviews India’s requirements in particular on the working of imported inventions and their impact on compulsory licenses....

In the absence of specific regulations, the ownership of inventions made by employees is governed by common law in India. The evolution of employer-employee relations in recent times have significant implications on the intellectual property created in the course of such a relationship. It is important to understand the subtle changes and evaluate what they mean for employers and employees....