The Patents Act, 1970

What it does

The Patents Act, 1970 is the statute for patents in India. A patent is a right, granted by the State for a limited time, to stop others from making, using, selling or importing an invention without the patentee's consent. To be patented, an invention must be new, involve an inventive step and be capable of industrial application, and it must not fall within the matters the Act excludes. The term of a patent is twenty years from the date of filing.

The Act also sets the procedure: an application with a specification that describes the invention, examination, publication, opposition before and after grant, and revocation. It provides for compulsory licences, for the Government's use of patents, and for the remedies a patentee has against infringement. Applications are made to the Patent Office under the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks.

Who it binds

It binds inventors and applicants, who owe the Patent Office a full description of the invention and, for those who file abroad, information about their foreign applications. It binds patentees, who may be required to license or to show that the invention is worked in India, and anyone who makes, uses, sells or imports a patented product or process without leave. Residents who wish to file abroad first need permission in the cases the Act provides.

What has changed, and when

• Most of the Act came into force on 20 April 1972, and the remainder (sections 28, 68 and 125 to 132, and section 12(2) and 13(2)) on 1 April 1978. It replaced the Indian Patents and Designs Act, 1911 for patents.
• It has been amended, notably by the Patents (Amendment) Act, 2005, which extended product patents to fields such as pharmaceuticals and chemicals. The Patents Rules made under it have also been amended, and procedure and fees depend on the version in force on the date of the filing.
• Courts have given shape to key provisions, especially those that exclude subject matter, and those decisions have to be read together with the text.

What turns on it in practice

The recurring issue in technology cases is what the Act excludes. Section 3(k) says that a mathematical or business method, a computer programme per se or algorithms are not inventions. The site's note on AI and patents explains that the courts have asked whether the invention shows a technical effect, and have treated a claim as patentable where it does, even if it runs on software on a conventional computer. The note cites the Delhi High Court's decision of 15 May 2023 in Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC v. Assistant Controller of Patents and Designs, which set aside a refusal and remitted the application for a decision on novelty and inventive step.

A second issue is who may be the inventor. The Act speaks of the true and first inventor. According to published commentary of April 2026 recorded in the site's note, the Patent Office refused an application naming an AI system as inventor, reasoning that only natural persons qualify and that owning a machine does not supply the proof of right the Act requires. A business that uses AI in research should therefore record the human contribution to an invention at the time it is made, because it is the humans who can be named.

A third is the choice between a patent and secrecy. A patent requires full disclosure of the invention, and an invention that is disclosed before filing may lose its novelty. A trade secret needs no registration but no statute in India gives it the same protection. The site's work on intellectual property and licensing and on AI, data and emerging technology meets the Act at this choice, and at the licence under which a patented technology is then used.

The fourth is enforcement. A patentee who sues for infringement meets a defence of invalidity almost as a matter of course, and the grounds of opposition and revocation under the Act become the defendant's case. Prior art is the usual battleground, and the records of invention, filing and publication decide it.