Under the Patents Act 1970, the term of a patent is:

Twenty years from the date of filing the application

Fourteen years from the date of grant

Ten years, renewable indefinitely

The inventor's lifetime plus sixty years

Assertion (A): There is no copyright in an idea, theme or plot. Reason (R): Copyright protects the particular form of expression of an idea. Choose the correct option.

Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A

Both A and R are true, but R is not the correct explanation of A

India's first compulsory licence under section 84 of the Patents Act was granted in 2012 to:

Natco Pharma, for Bayer's sorafenib tosylate

Cipla, for Novartis's imatinib mesylate

Ranbaxy, for Pfizer's atorvastatin

Natco Pharma, for Bayer's sorafenib tosylate

Dr Reddy's, for Roche's erlotinib

Which of the following are not inventions under section 3 of the Patents Act 1970? Select all that apply.

A new use of a known substance, without more

Assertion (A): In University of Oxford v Rameshwari Photocopy Services, the preparation of course packs for students was held capable of falling within a statutory exception to infringement. Reason (R): Copyright in a literary work lasts for sixty years from its first publication. Choose the correct option.

Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A

Both A and R are true, but R is not the correct explanation of A

Which of the following are grounds for a compulsory licence under section 84 of the Patents Act 1970? Select all that apply.

The patented invention is not worked in the territory of India

The patented invention is not available at a reasonably affordable price

The reasonable requirements of the public have not been satisfied

The patented invention is not worked in the territory of India

The patentee is a foreign company

The patented invention is not available at a reasonably affordable price

The reasonable requirements of the public have not been satisfied

Intellectual Property I: Concept and Theories, the International Conventions, Copyright and Neighbouring Rights, and the Law of Patents

Unit IX is "Intellectual Property Rights and Information Technology Law". This chapter takes its first five items: the concept and meaning of intellectual property, its theories, the international conventions, copyright and neighbouring rights, and the law of patents. The Indian statutes are the Copyright Act 1957 and the Patents Act 1970, each substantially amended to meet India's obligations under the TRIPS Agreement. Questions test the subject matter protected, the term of protection, the exceptions, and the leading cases, above all Novartis v Union of India (2013) on section 3(d) and the first compulsory licence, granted to Natco in 2012. The next chapter covers trade marks, geographical indications, biodiversity and IT law.

1. Concept, meaning and theories of intellectual property

Intellectual property is a set of legal rights over creations of the mind: inventions, literary and artistic works, designs, and signs used in commerce. It is incorporeal property, a right to exclude others from using the intangible subject matter, which is non-rivalrous (one person's use does not diminish another's) and would otherwise be freely copied. Each right is territorial and, except for trade marks and geographical indications, limited in time, after which the subject matter falls into the public domain. The Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization (1967) defines intellectual property broadly to include rights relating to literary, artistic and scientific works, performances, inventions, scientific discoveries, industrial designs, trade marks and protection against unfair competition.

Theories of intellectual property
Theory	Justification	Associated with
Labour (natural rights)	A person who mixes labour with material from the commons earns property in the result, provided enough and as good is left for others	John Locke
Personality	A creative work embodies the author's personality and will; this grounds moral rights of attribution and integrity	Hegel
Utilitarian (incentive)	A limited monopoly is the price society pays to encourage creation and disclosure that benefit everyone	Bentham, Mill; the incentive logic of patent law
Social planning	Property rights should be shaped to foster a just and attractive culture, balancing access with reward	Scholars such as William Fisher, who set out the four theories

🎯 Why patents require disclosure

A patent is a bargain: the State grants a twenty-year right to exclude, and in return the inventor must disclose the invention fully in the specification so that others can work it after expiry and build on it meanwhile. Section 3(d) and the compulsory licensing provisions reflect the other side of that bargain, the public interest in access, particularly to medicines.

2. International conventions on intellectual property

The main international instruments
Instrument	Year	Core rules
Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property	1883	National treatment; right of priority (twelve months for patents and utility models, six months for trade marks and industrial designs); independence of patents; India joined in 1998
Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works	1886	National treatment; automatic protection without formalities; a minimum term of the author's life plus fifty years; moral rights (Article 6bis)
Rome Convention	1961	Neighbouring rights of performers, producers of phonograms and broadcasting organisations; India is not a party
TRIPS Agreement	1994, in force 1995	Minimum standards for all WTO members, enforcement obligations and WTO dispute settlement; national treatment and most-favoured-nation treatment; patents for products and processes in all fields of technology for twenty years (Articles 27 and 33); compulsory licences (Article 31); developing countries had until 2005 to introduce product patents in fields such as pharmaceuticals
Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health	2001	TRIPS should be interpreted to support public health and access to medicines; each member may determine the grounds for compulsory licences and what constitutes a national emergency
WIPO treaties	1970 to 2013	Patent Cooperation Treaty (1970); Budapest Treaty on deposit of micro-organisms (1977); Madrid Protocol on trade marks (1989; India joined in 2013); WIPO Copyright Treaty and WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty (1996; India acceded in 2018); Marrakesh Treaty for visually impaired persons (2013; India was the first to ratify)

🧠 Paris is industrial, Berne is literary

Paris (1883) covers industrial property: patents, trade marks, designs, geographical indications and unfair competition. Berne (1886) covers copyright. TRIPS incorporates the substantive provisions of both, adding enforcement and dispute settlement through the WTO.

3. Copyright and neighbouring rights

Under section 13 of the Copyright Act 1957 copyright subsists in original literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works, cinematograph films and sound recordings. Copyright protects expression, not ideas: in R.G. Anand v Deluxe Films (1978) the Supreme Court held that there can be no copyright in an idea, theme or plot, and that the test of infringement is whether a lay viewer, after seeing both works, would get an unmistakable impression that one is a copy of the other. Originality requires a minimal degree of creativity, not mere labour: in Eastern Book Company v D.B. Modak (2008) the Court held that copy-edited judgments were protected only in the creative inputs, such as headnotes and paragraph numbering, and not in the text of the judgments. Registration is optional; copyright arises on creation.

Terms of protection under the Copyright Act 1957
Right	Term	Provision
Literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works (including photographs since 2012)	The author's lifetime plus sixty years	s.22
Cinematograph films and sound recordings	Sixty years from publication	ss.26 and 27
Broadcast reproduction right (a neighbouring right)	Twenty-five years from the year following the broadcast	s.37
Performer's right (a neighbouring right)	Fifty years from the year following the performance	s.38
Author's special (moral) rights	The rights to claim authorship and to restrain distortion or mutilation prejudicial to honour or reputation, independent of the economic right	s.57

Limitations and exceptions: fair dealing for private or personal use including research, criticism or review, and reporting of current events (s.52(1)(a)); reproduction in judicial proceedings; use in the course of instruction; and, since 2012, adaptation and reproduction in accessible formats for persons with disabilities (s.52(1)(zb)). In University of Oxford v Rameshwari Photocopy Services (Delhi High Court, 2016) the preparation of course packs for students was held capable of falling within the exception for reproduction by a teacher or pupil in the course of instruction, to the extent justified by that purpose.
Infringement (s.51) is remedied civilly by injunction, damages and accounts of profits (s.55), and criminally by imprisonment from six months to three years and fine (s.63).
The 2012 amendment added statutory licensing for broadcasting (s.31D) and secured royalties for authors of literary and musical works incorporated in films and sound recordings.

⚠️ Idea versus expression

Two films on the same theme (for example, provincialism in a love story) do not infringe unless the expression, the manner of treatment and arrangement, is copied substantially. Where the similarities are only in the idea and the treatment differs, R.G. Anand holds there is no infringement.

4. The law of patents

An invention (section 2(1)(j) of the Patents Act 1970) is a new product or process involving an inventive step and capable of industrial application. Inventive step (section 2(1)(ja)) means a feature that involves technical advance over existing knowledge or has economic significance, or both, and makes the invention not obvious to a person skilled in the art. Section 3 lists what are not inventions, including frivolous inventions or those contrary to public order or morality, the mere discovery of a scientific principle, the mere discovery of a new form of a known substance that does not enhance its known efficacy (section 3(d)), a mere admixture, methods of agriculture, methods of treatment, plants and animals other than micro-organisms, a mathematical or business method or a computer programme per se or algorithms (section 3(k)), and traditional knowledge (section 3(p)); section 4 excludes inventions relating to atomic energy. The Patents (Amendment) Act 2005 introduced product patents for food, chemicals and pharmaceuticals to comply with TRIPS.

Procedure, rights and limits under the Patents Act 1970
Stage or rule	Content
Application and specification	Application under section 7; a provisional specification must be followed by a complete specification within twelve months (section 9)
Publication and examination	Publication after eighteen months from the date of filing or priority (section 11A); examination only on a request for examination within the prescribed period (section 11B)
Opposition	Pre-grant opposition by any person after publication (section 25(1)); post-grant opposition by any person interested within one year of publication of the grant (section 25(2))
Term and rights	Twenty years from the date of filing (section 53), subject to renewal fees; the patentee has the exclusive right to prevent others from making, using, selling or importing (section 48)
Compulsory licence	Any person may apply after three years from the grant on the grounds that the reasonable requirements of the public are not satisfied, the invention is not available at a reasonably affordable price, or it is not worked in India (section 84); also for national emergency or extreme urgency (section 92)
Exceptions and remedies	Research use and regulatory ("Bolar") use, and parallel imports, are not infringement (section 107A); remedies for infringement are injunction and damages or an account of profits (section 108)

In Novartis AG v Union of India (1 April 2013) the Supreme Court upheld the rejection of a patent application for the beta crystalline form of imatinib mesylate, a cancer drug. It held that the new form was a new form of a known substance and that "efficacy" in section 3(d), for a medicine, means therapeutic efficacy; physical properties such as better flow or bioavailability did not by themselves show enhanced therapeutic efficacy. India's first compulsory licence under section 84 was granted by the Controller of Patents to Natco Pharma in March 2012 for Bayer's cancer drug sorafenib tosylate (sold as Nexavar), on all three grounds, and was upheld on appeal.

🎯 Why section 3(d) exists

Section 3(d) targets "evergreening": extending a patent monopoly by obtaining fresh patents on minor modifications (new salts, polymorphs, esters) of a known drug. By requiring enhanced therapeutic efficacy, it keeps patents for genuine advances and lets generic versions enter the market when the original patent expires. TRIPS leaves members free to define patentability criteria in this way.

Key takeaways

Intellectual property is incorporeal, territorial and mostly time-limited; its justifications are Locke's labour theory, Hegel's personality theory, utilitarian incentive and social planning.
Paris (1883) covers industrial property and Berne (1886) copyright; TRIPS (1994, in force 1995) sets minimum standards with WTO enforcement; the Doha Declaration (2001) affirms public health.
Copyright protects expression, not ideas (R.G. Anand, 1978), and needs a modicum of creativity (Eastern Book Co, 2008); literary works last for life plus sixty years (s.22); performers fifty and broadcasters twenty-five years.
A patentable invention is new, inventive and industrially applicable (s.2(1)(j)); section 3 lists non-inventions, including 3(d) and 3(k); the term is twenty years from filing (s.53).
Novartis (2013) read "efficacy" in s.3(d) as therapeutic efficacy; the first compulsory licence under s.84 went to Natco for sorafenib in 2012.

Practice questions (10)

Attempt each one before opening the answer. Every explanation names the tempting wrong option as well as the right one, because that is where marks are lost.

Under the Patents Act 1970, the term of a patent is:
1. Twenty years from the date of filing the application
2. Fourteen years from the date of grant
3. Ten years, renewable indefinitely
4. The inventor's lifetime plus sixty years
Show answer
Answer: A — Twenty years from the date of filing the application
Section 53, in line with Article 33 of TRIPS, gives twenty years from the date of filing, subject to payment of renewal fees. Ten years renewable indefinitely describes a trade mark; life plus sixty years describes copyright in literary works.
In Novartis AG v Union of India (2013), the Supreme Court held that "efficacy" in section 3(d), in the case of a medicine, means:
1. Improved bioavailability alone
2. Therapeutic efficacy
3. Commercial success
4. Ease of manufacture
Show answer
Answer: B — Therapeutic efficacy
The Court held that for a medicine, efficacy means therapeutic efficacy, so the beta crystalline form of imatinib mesylate had to show enhanced therapeutic effect over the known substance; improved flow, stability or bioavailability alone did not suffice.
Assertion (A): There is no copyright in an idea, theme or plot. Reason (R): Copyright protects the particular form of expression of an idea. Choose the correct option.
1. Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A
2. Both A and R are true, but R is not the correct explanation of A
3. A is true, but R is false
4. A is false, but R is true
Show answer
Answer: A — Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A
Both are true and R explains A. Because copyright protects expression, an idea can be freely used by others provided they express it differently; R.G. Anand v Deluxe Films (1978) applied this to films on the same theme.
India's first compulsory licence under section 84 of the Patents Act was granted in 2012 to:
1. Cipla, for Novartis's imatinib mesylate
2. Ranbaxy, for Pfizer's atorvastatin
3. Natco Pharma, for Bayer's sorafenib tosylate
4. Dr Reddy's, for Roche's erlotinib
Show answer
Answer: C — Natco Pharma, for Bayer's sorafenib tosylate
The Controller granted Natco a compulsory licence for sorafenib tosylate (Nexavar) in March 2012 on the grounds of unmet public requirements, unaffordable price and non-working in India. Imatinib concerns the Novartis patentability case, not a compulsory licence.
Which of the following are not inventions under section 3 of the Patents Act 1970? Select all that apply.
1. A computer programme per se
2. A new process involving an inventive step and capable of industrial application
3. A new use of a known substance, without more
4. A method of agriculture
Show answer
Answer: A — A computer programme per se; C — A new use of a known substance, without more; D — A method of agriculture
Computer programmes per se (s.3(k)), methods of agriculture (s.3(h)) and the mere new use of a known substance (s.3(d)) are excluded. A new process with an inventive step and industrial application is the definition of an invention in section 2(1)(j).
Under the Paris Convention (1883), the period of priority for patent applications is:
1. Six months
2. Eighteen months
3. Thirty months
4. Twelve months
Show answer
Answer: D — Twelve months
Article 4 gives twelve months for patents and utility models and six months for trade marks and industrial designs. Eighteen months is the publication period under the Indian Act, and thirty months relates to the national phase under the Patent Cooperation Treaty.
Assertion (A): In University of Oxford v Rameshwari Photocopy Services, the preparation of course packs for students was held capable of falling within a statutory exception to infringement. Reason (R): Copyright in a literary work lasts for sixty years from its first publication. Choose the correct option.
1. Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A
2. Both A and R are true, but R is not the correct explanation of A
3. A is true, but R is false
4. A is false, but R is true
Show answer
Answer: C — A is true, but R is false
A is true: the Delhi High Court applied the exception for reproduction in the course of instruction. R is false: copyright in a literary work lasts for the author's lifetime plus sixty years (s.22); sixty years from publication applies to films and sound recordings.
Which of the following are grounds for a compulsory licence under section 84 of the Patents Act 1970? Select all that apply.
1. The patented invention is not worked in the territory of India
2. The patentee is a foreign company
3. The patented invention is not available at a reasonably affordable price
4. The reasonable requirements of the public have not been satisfied
Show answer
Answer: A — The patented invention is not worked in the territory of India; C — The patented invention is not available at a reasonably affordable price; D — The reasonable requirements of the public have not been satisfied
Section 84 lists unmet reasonable requirements, unaffordable price and non-working in India, and an application may be made after three years from the grant. The nationality of the patentee is not a ground; TRIPS forbids discrimination on that basis.
Which theory of intellectual property most directly grounds the author's moral rights of attribution and integrity?
1. Hegel's personality theory
2. The social planning theory
3. Bentham's utilitarian theory
4. Locke's labour theory
Show answer
Answer: A — Hegel's personality theory
The personality theory treats a work as an extension of the author's personality, which explains why the author can object to distortion even after assigning the economic rights, as section 57 allows. Labour and utilitarian theories justify economic rights rather than moral rights.
Under section 38 of the Copyright Act 1957, for how many years does a performer's right subsist? Type the number.
Numerical answer — type the value.
Show answer
Answer: 50
A performer's right subsists for fifty years from the beginning of the calendar year following the year of the performance; the broadcast reproduction right under section 37 lasts twenty-five years.