Date of grant of a patent is date order passed on file

What is the date of grant of a patent?

In Dr Snehlata C Gupte v Union of India & Ors, a single judge in Delhi High Court answered this question, which arose in a batch of writ petitions, by holding that the date of grant of a patent is the date on which the controller passes an order to that effect on the file. The judge also directed the controller to disclose patent awards immediately and to electronically circulate the dates of patent grant hearings a day before.

Aggrieved by this order, the petitioners appealed before a division bench, which upheld the order.

Summary of facts

J Mitra & Co had filed two patent applications in 2001, which were published in 2004. Span Diagnostics Ltd (SDL) filed pre-grant oppositions. In August 2006, the controller rejected the oppositions and ordered the patents to be granted after J Mitra fulfilled a condition. The Patents Act, 1970, by that time was amended by the Patents (Amendment) Act, 2005, under which the time for filing a pre-grant opposition was extended until the grant of patent.

Gupte, the appellant, contended that her pre-grant opposition was well within the time as prescribed under the amended law as it was received before a patent had been granted. She contended that under the Patents Act, a patent is not granted until it is sealed and entered in the register.

Abhai Pandey is an attorney-at-law with extensive experience in civil and criminal enforcement of intellectual property rights. He has over 16 years of experience in practice in this domain.