Patents are granted to the inventions that fulfill statutory requirements as given in the Indian Patents Act 1970. According to Section 2(j) of the Indian Patents Act, 1970, an invention means a new product or the process involving an inventive step and capable of industrial application”.The requirements for patentability of an invention form the most crucial parts of patent law. They form the basis for the grant of a patent, scope of protection, and patent validity of the patentable invention. A patentable invention must satisfy the following requirements.

A.Novelty

Novelty is a necessary and absolute condition for patentability. Novelty means newness of the information that is generally unused or unknown, and that gives its owner a
competitive advantage. Therefore, the invention should be different from what is already existing (prior art) or not in the public in the world domain anywhere.

B.Inventive step/Non-obviousness Section
The inventive step means that a feature of the invention should have a technical advancement, as compared to existing technology or having economic significance or both and that makes the invention not-obvious to a person skilled in the art. To determine patentability, the examiner will look at the weather the claimed invention involves inventive steps.

C.Industrial Applicability
An invention must be capable of industrial application to be patentable. The examiner shall assess whether the claimed invention can be utilized or made by an industrial process in any industry.

Novartis v. Union of India (2013) 6 SCC 1
Novartis applied for a patent for one of its drugs called ‘Gleevec’.After the hearing, SupremeCourt rejected the application for lack of novelty of the new Drug and said that the
mere discovery of a new drug does not seem to an invention. The court also mentioned that the invention is not a novel Medicine and it is a merely altered version of
the existing compound without an efficacy.

Indian Council of Agricultural Research (application number 2957/CHE/2007)
The application was filed by M/s Indian Council of Agricultural Research, an Indian Institute for an invention titled “Automatic pumping system for skimming wells” on 10th Dec. 2007. The application relates to an invention concerning automatic pumping of skimmed well where the saltiness (salinity) of the water is measured continuously and based on the salinity level; the pump is operated. In case the salinity level of the pumped water goes beyond the desired level, the pump automatically switches off so that no more pumping is carried out. After the examination, the invention was objected due to lack of novelty and did not constitute an inventive step after considering all the submission and facts made by the applicant, the patent office refused the patent application under section 15 of the patents act 1970, on the base of fails to meet the requirement of section2(1)(a).

This article does not intend to hurt the sentiments of any individual, community, sect, or religion, etcetera. This article is based purely on the author’s personal opinion and views in the exercise of the Fundamental Rights guaranteed under Article 19(1)(A) and other related laws being enforced in India for the time being.