Scope and salient features of the Patents Act, 1970 (with 2005 amendment) — Intellectual Property Rights I Notes

Scope and salient features of the Patents Act, 1970 (with 2005 amendment)

Until 1 January 2005, India granted no patents on medicines or food — only on the process of making them. That single limitation kept Indian generic drugs among the cheapest on earth. TRIPS forced the change, and the 2005 amendment quietly rewrote the pharmaceutical world.

The scope and features

The Patents Act, 1970 replaced the colonial 1911 Act and is the complete code for patents in India. It was amended in 1999, 2002 and — most importantly — 2005, to comply with TRIPS. Its salient features:

Definition-driven — “invention” (s.2(1)(j)) requires novelty, inventive step and industrial application.
List of non-inventions — ss.3 and 4 exclude a long list from patentability (see Topic 6).
20-year uniform term — s.53, counted from the filing date, for all patents.
Complete disclosure — the complete specification with claims (s.10) is the price of the monopoly.
Opposition mechanism — pre-grant and post-grant opposition (s.25).
Compulsory licensing and government use — public-interest safety valves (ss.84, 92, 99–103).
Patent Office and Controller — administers grant, maintains the Register (s.67).

The 2005 amendment — the headline points:

Product patents introduced. Before 2005, s.5 allowed only process patents for food, medicine and chemicals. The 2005 amendment deleted s.5, so now the product itself — a new molecule — can be patented, not just the method of making it.
s.3(d) inserted/strengthened to block “evergreening”: a new form of a known substance is patentable only if it shows enhanced therapeutic efficacy — the rule later applied in Novartis (2013).
Post-grant opposition and provisions for pre-grant opposition refined (s.25).
Compulsory-licence machinery aligned with TRIPS flexibilities (later used in Natco v Bayer (2012)).

Patents Act, 1970, s.53(1): “the term of every patent granted… shall be twenty years from the date of filing of the application for the patent.”

In Simple Terms: The 1970 Act is India’s patent rulebook. The 2005 amendment’s big move was to allow patents on products (like a drug molecule itself), not just on the process of making them — while adding s.3(d) to stop trivial “new forms” from grabbing fresh monopolies.

🧩 WORKED EXAMPLE — before and after 2005

Facts. In 2003, a company invents a new medicine molecule and a new method to synthesise it.

Rule. Pre-2005 s.5 allowed only process patents for medicines; post-2005 both product and process are patentable.

Apply. In 2003 the company could patent only the method; a rival using a different method could sell the same molecule. After 2005 the company could patent the molecule itself, blocking all rivals however they make it.

Conclusion. The 2005 shift from process-only to product patents is the single most important feature to name in this answer.

flowchart TD
    ACT["Patents Act, 1970"]:::root
    ACT --> A["Pre-2005: process patents only for food/drugs (old s.5)"]:::leaf
    ACT --> B["2005 amendment (TRIPS)"]:::leaf
    B --> C["Product patents allowed (s.5 deleted)"]:::leaf
    B --> D["s.3(d) — bar on evergreening"]:::leaf
    B --> E["Refined opposition & compulsory licence"]:::leaf
    classDef root fill:#FFF8DC,stroke:#000,color:#000;
    classDef leaf fill:#E6F3FF,stroke:#1E3A8A,color:#000;

Case Laws

Novartis AG v Union of India (2013) — applied the post-2005 s.3(d); a new salt form of a known drug without enhanced efficacy is not patentable.
Natco Pharma v Bayer Corporation (2012) — first compulsory licence under the post-2005 regime, showing the Act’s public-interest features in action.

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