Intellectual Property Rights

1.1 What do IP laws give an owner?

Each IP law gives the owner a legal right over a creation. For patents, TRIPS says the patent confers exclusive rights on its owner. Other laws work the same way in our plain reading.

WIPO, the global body for this field, describes its job as serving the world’s innovators and creators.

1.2 Which law covers what, and for how long?

Terms are from the Acts. The copyright row is the rule for a literary work published in the author’s lifetime. The middle column is our own summary.

1.3 When does the clock start?

A patent term runs from the date of filing, not from the grant. TRIPS sets the same floor: protection must not end before twenty years from the filing date.

Here is our own example for copyright. An author dies on 10 March 2000. The next calendar year begins on 1 January 2001. Sixty years from then ends on 1 January 2061.

1.4 What is the usual mistake?

Students count the patent term from the grant date. The Act counts from filing. A slow grant therefore eats into the twenty years.

2.1 What counts as an invention?

The Patents Act says an invention is a new product or process. It must involve an inventive step. It must also be capable of industrial application.

An inventive step is a technical advance, or economic significance, that makes the invention not obvious to a skilled person.

2.2 What is shut out by section 3?

Section 3 lists things that are not inventions. Three matter most for exams.

• 3(b): inventions whose commercial use could be contrary to public order or morality, or could seriously harm life, health or the environment.
• 3(d): a new form of a known substance, unless it enhances the known efficacy.
• 3(k): a mathematical or business method, a computer program per se, or algorithms.

2.3 Why does section 3(d) exist?

A law firm’s note on the Supreme Court’s reading says 3(d) attempts to curtail ever-greening. That means stretching a patent by tweaking an old drug.

The Explanation names the usual tweaks. Salts, esters, ethers, polymorphs, pure form, particle size and isomers count as the same substance. They are treated as new only if they differ significantly in efficacy.

2.4 How would it work?

Here is our own example. A firm finds a new salt of a known medicine. The salt works the same way in the body. Section 3(d) says it is not a new invention.

If the salt cured patients far better, it could pass. The same note says 3(d) is a bar that such inventions must pass. It does not ban them.

2.5 What is the usual mistake?

Students say 3(d) bans medicine patents. It does not. It only bars a new form of a known substance with no enhanced efficacy.

3.1 What does section 3(j) exclude?

Section 3(j) excludes plants and animals, in whole or in part. This includes seeds, varieties and species. It also excludes essentially biological processes for producing or propagating them.

Look at the carve-out. The text says other than micro-organisms. So micro-organisms are not caught by this exclusion.

3.2 How are plant varieties protected, then?

TRIPS Article 27.3(b) asks members to protect plant varieties by patents, by an effective sui generis system, or by both. Sui generis means a special law made for one purpose.

India chose the sui generis route. It passed the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Act, 2001.

3.3 What can a farmer still do?

The farmer may save, use, share or sell farm produce of a protected variety. One limit applies. The sale must not be for reproduction under a commercial marketing arrangement.

Here is our own example. A farmer keeps seed from a registered wheat variety and sows it next year. That is allowed. Selling that seed as a branded product is not.

3.4 How long does protection last?

A certificate is valid for nine years for trees and vines. It is valid for six years for other crops. The total cannot exceed eighteen years for trees and vines.

3.5 What is the usual mistake?

Students say living things can never be patented. The text carves out micro-organisms. Also, plant varieties are not unprotected. They have their own Act.

4.1 What is WIPO?

The World Intellectual Property Organization is a United Nations agency. It was established in 1967 and has 194 member states. Its headquarters are in Geneva.

4.2 What does TRIPS say?

The TRIPS text is hosted on the World Trade Organization’s site. Article 27.1 says patents shall be available for inventions in all fields of technology. They must be new, involve an inventive step and be capable of industrial application.

Article 1 adds an important point. Members may give more extensive protection than the Agreement requires. They need not. So TRIPS works as a floor.

4.3 How are the two different?

This is our own reading. WIPO is an agency that serves creators. TRIPS is a trade agreement with duties for WTO members. India, as a WTO member, must meet it.

4.4 What is the usual mistake?

Students say WIPO wrote TRIPS. The agreement text sits on the WTO site. WIPO is a separate UN agency.

5.1 What is the Policy?

The Union Cabinet approved the National IPR Policy. The PIB release of 13 May 2016 says it was approved ‘yesterday’. The Policy document is dated 12 May 2016.

The slogan is Creative India; Innovative India.

5.2 What are its seven objectives?

The diagram follows the PIB release. Objective 4 also sets up a Cell for IPR Promotion and Management (CIPAM) under DIPP, per the Policy text.

5.3 Who coordinates it?

The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) is the nodal department. Its job is to coordinate, guide and oversee implementation and future development of IPRs.

5.4 What does it say about global deals?

The release says the Policy reiterates India’s commitment to the Doha Development Agenda and the TRIPS agreement. The Policy text also says India shall remain committed to the Doha Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health.

5.5 What is the usual mistake?

Students mix the two Doha names. One is the Doha Development Agenda. The other is the Doha Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health. The Policy mentions both.

6.1 Why was TKDL needed?

The US Patent Office granted a patent on the wound-healing properties of turmeric. The European Patent Office granted one on neem’s antifungal properties. India got both revoked. WIPO’s magazine says this proved extremely costly and time-consuming.

There was a second problem. Indian texts are in languages such as Sanskrit, Hindi, Arabic, Urdu and Tamil. WIPO’s magazine says these languages were neither accessible to nor understood by patent examiners.

6.2 What is TKDL?

The Traditional Knowledge Digital Library is a prior art database of Indian traditional knowledge. It was set up in 2001 by CSIR with the then Department of Indian Systems of Medicine and Homeopathy. PIB says it was made to prevent misuse of Indian traditional knowledge through intellectual property rights.

6.3 How big is it?

• 519,978 formulations or techniques are transcribed into the database (PIB, March 2026).
• 18 patent offices have access under non-disclosure agreements with CSIR.
• Since 2009, 375 patent applications were refused, withdrawn, amended or set aside on TKDL evidence.

6.4 What is the usual mistake?

Students think TKDL gives communities a patent. It does not. It gives patent examiners proof that the knowledge already existed. Lawyers call that proof prior art.

7.1 What was the Novartis case?

Novartis applied in 1998 for a patent on the beta-crystalline form of imatinib mesylate. It is a drug used for chronic myeloid leukaemia. The Supreme Court rejected the application on 1 April 2013.

The Court dismissed the appeals filed by Novartis AG, with costs.

7.2 What test did the Court use?

For a medicine that claims to cure a disease, the test of efficacy can only be therapeutic efficacy. So a tweak must show a real health gain to pass section 3(d).

7.3 Can the State override a patent?

Yes, through a compulsory licence. Any interested person may apply to the Controller for one after three years from the grant of a patent.

This is our own link between the two tools. Section 3(d) acts before a patent is granted. A compulsory licence acts after it.

7.4 Where does the Policy stand?

The National IPR Policy says India shall remain committed to the Doha Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health. Strong protection rewards invention. Wide access protects patients. India’s rules try to balance both. That balance is our own summary.

7.5 What is the usual mistake?

Students say the Court struck down patents on all new drug forms. It did not. The same note says 3(d) is a bar that incremental inventions must pass.

8.1 What was the IPAB?

The Intellectual Property Appellate Board was set up in Chennai on 15 September 2003. That was the day the Trade Marks Act, 1999 came into force. PIB said the Act provided an Appellate Board for speedy disposal of appeals.

8.2 How did it end?

On 4 April 2021 the President promulgated the Tribunals Reforms (Rationalisation and Conditions of Service) Ordinance, 2021. It abolished the IPAB.

A Bill with the same content replaced the ordinance. PRS records it passed the Lok Sabha on 3 August and the Rajya Sabha on 9 August 2021. This site’s paper page calls the law the Tribunals Reforms Act, 2021.

8.3 Where do cases go now?

A law-firm note says matters pending before the IPAB stood transferred to the relevant High Court. PRS lists the Commercial Court as the proposed forum for Copyright Act appeals.

8.4 Why does the date matter?

The IPAB existed from 2003 until 2021. So a statement made in 2019 that India had no IPAB was false then. The same statement is true after April 2021.

9.1 What happened on 5 August 2026?

PIB reported that 7,393 URLs were disabled for film piracy. They included 4,996 Telegram channels and 1,263 websites. Dr L. Murugan gave the figures in a written Lok Sabha reply.

9.2 What is the legal basis?

The Cinematograph (Amendment) Act, 2023 inserted section 7(1B)(ii). It empowers the Government, under section 79(3) of the IT Act, 2000, to act against intermediaries hosting pirated content.

The Joint Secretary (Films) in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting is authorised to issue takedown notices.

9.3 How does India rank on innovation?

India’s rank in WIPO’s Global Innovation Index 2025 was 38. It was the top performer in Central and Southern Asia. A law-firm article reports this, as of 2025.

10.1 What did UPSC ask in 2019?

So only statement 3 is right. The answer is (c).

10.2 What did UPSC ask in 2017?

Statement 1 matches the PIB release word for word. For statement 2, the Policy says DIPP is the nodal department to coordinate, guide and oversee. The word ‘regulating’ is UPSC’s own.

10.3 Which numbers should you keep?

• 20 years from filing: the patent term.
• Life plus 60 years: the copyright term, counted from the next calendar year.
• 10 years: trade marks, designs and GIs.
• 2003 to 2021: the life of the IPAB.
• 12 May 2016: the National IPR Policy.
• 7 objectives and DIPP as the nodal department.