The Patents Act, 1970

(1) This Act may be called the Patents Act, 1970. (2) It extends to the whole of India. (3) It shall come into force on such date1as the Central Government may, by notification in theOfficial Gazette, appoint: Provided that different dates may be appointed for different provisions of this Act, and any referencein any such provision to the commencement of this Act shall be construed as a reference to the cominginto force of that provision.

(1) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,-- 1****; (ab) assignee includes an assignee of the assignee and the legal representative of a deceasedassignee and references to the assignee of any person include references to the assignee of the legalrepresentative or assignee of that person; 2[(aba) Budapest Treaty means the Budapest Treaty on the International Recognition of theDeposit of Micro-organisms for the purposes of Patent Procedure done at Budapest on 28th day ofApril, 1977, as amended and modified from time to time;] (ac) capable of industrial application, in relation to an invention, means that the invention iscapable of being made or used in an industry;] (b) Controller means the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks referred to insection 73; (c) convention application means an application for a patent made by virtue of section 135; 3[(d) convention country means a country or a country which is member of a group of countriesor a union of countries or an Inter-governmental organisation 4[referred to as a convention country insection 133;] (e) district court has the meaning assigned to that expression by the Code of Civil Procedure,1908 (5 of 1908); (f) exclusive licence means a licence from a patentee which confers on the licensee, or on thelicensee and persons authorised by him, to the exclusion of all other persons (including the patentee),any right in respect of the patented invention, and exclusive licensee shall be construedaccordingly; 5* * * * * (h) Government undertaking means any industrial undertaking carried on-- (i) by a department of the Government, or (ii) by a corporation established by a Central, Provincial or State Act, which is owned orcontrolled by the Government, or (iii) by a Government company as defined in section 617 of the Companies Act, 1956 (1 of1956),16[or] 6[(iv) by an institution wholly or substantially financed by the Government;] 7* * * * * 8[(i) High Court, in relation to a State or Union territory, means the High Court havingterritorial jurisdiction in that State or Union territory, as the case may be;] 9[(ia) international application means an application for patent made in accordance with thePatent Cooperation Treaty;] 10[(j) invention means a new product or process involving an inventive step and capable ofindustrial application; 11[(ja) inventive step means a feature of an invention that involves technical advance ascompared to the existing knowledge or having economic significance or both and that makes theinvention not obvious to a person skilled in the art;]] (k) legal representative means a person who in law represents the estate of a deceased person; 12[(l) new invention means any invention or technology which has not been anticipated bypublication in any document or used in the country or elsewhere in the world before the date of filingof patent application with complete specification, i.e., the subject matter has not fallen in publicdomain or that it does not form part of the state of the art; (la) Opposition Board means an Opposition Board constituted under sub-section (3) of section25; (m) patent means a patent for any invention granted under this Act;] (n) patent agent means a person for the time being registered under this Act as a patent agent; (o) patented article and patented process mean respectively an article or process in respect ofwhich a patent is in force; 9[(oa) Patent Cooperation Treaty means the Patent Cooperation Treaty done at Washington onthe 19th day of June, 1970 as amended and modified from time to time;] (p) patentee means the person for the time being entered on the register as the grantee orproprietor of the patent; (q) patent of addition means a patent granted in accordance with section 54; (r) patent office means the patent office referred to in section 74; (s) person includes the Government; (t) person interested includes a person engaged in, or in promoting, research in the same fieldas that to which the invention relates; 13[(ta) pharmaceutical substance means any new entity involving one or more inventive steps;] 14[(u) prescribed means,-- (A) in relation to proceedings before a High Court, prescribed by rules made by the HighCourt; 15* * ***; (C) in other cases, prescribed by rules made under this Act;] (v) prescribed manner includes the payment of the prescribed fee; (w) priority date has the meaning assigned to it by section 11; (x) register means the register of patents referred to in section 67; (y) true and first inventor does not include either the first importer of an invention into India, ora person to whom an invention is first communicated from outside India. (2) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires, any reference-- (a) to the Controller shall be construed as including a reference to any officer discharging thefunctions of the Controller in pursuance of section 73; (b) to the patent office shall be construed as including a reference to any branch office of thepatent office.

The following are not inventions within the meaning of thisAct,-- (a) an invention which is frivolous or which claims anything obviously contrary to wellestablished natural laws; 1[(b) an invention the primary or intended use or commercial exploitation of which would becontrary to public order or morality or which causes serious prejudice to human, animal or plant lifeor health or to the environment;] (c) the mere discovery of a scientific principle or the formulation of an abstract theory 2[ordiscovery of any living thing or non-living substance occurring in nature]; 3[(d) the mere discovery of a new form of a known substance which does not result in theenhancement of the known efficacy of that substance or the mere discovery of any new property ornew use for a known substance or of the mere use of a known process, machine or apparatus unlesssuch known process results in a new product or employs at least one new reactant. Explanation.--For the purposes of this clause, salts, esters, ethers, polymorphs, metabolites, pureform, particle size, isomers, mixtures of isomers, complexes, combinations and other derivatives ofknown substance shall be considered to be the same substance, unless they differ significantly inproperties with regard to efficacy;] (e) a substance obtained by a mere admixture resulting only in the aggregation of the propertiesof the components thereof or a process for producing such substance; (f) the mere arrangement or re-arrangement or duplication of known devices each functioningindependently of one another in a known way; 4* * * * * (h) a method of agriculture or horticulture; (i) any process for the medicinal, surgical, curative, prophylactic 5[diagnostic, therapeutic] orother treatment of human beings or any process for a similar treatment of animals 6*** to render themfree of disease or to increase their economic value or that of their products. 5[(j) plants and animals in whole or any part thereof other than micro-organisms but includingseeds, varieties and species and essentially biological processes for production or propagation ofplants and animals; (k) a mathematical or business method or a computer programme per se or algorithms; (l) a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work or any other aesthetic creation whatsoeverincluding cinematographic works and television productions; (m) a mere scheme or rule or method of performing mental act or method of playing game; (n) a presentation of information; (o) topography of integrated circuits; (p) an invention which, in effect, is traditional knowledge or which is an aggregation orduplication of known properties of traditionally known component or components.]

No patent shall be granted in respect ofan invention relating to atomic energy falling within sub-section (1) of section 20 of the Atomic EnergyAct, 1962 (33 of 1962).

[Inventions where only methods or processes of manufacture patentable.] Omitted by thePatents (Amendment) Act, 2005(15 of 2005), s. 4 (w.e.f. 1-1-2005).