Pharmaceutical Products -What is not Patentable under Indian Law?

Preface

The determination of patentability of a particular invention is perhaps the most daunting and consuming task in the entire process of grant of a patent. For an innovation to qualify the criteria of invention it must be new, involve an inventive step and should be capable of industrial application. However, the existence of these preliminary requirements would not alone entitle an invention to claim patent protection. The invention must also escape the exclusionary clauses under the Patents Act.

Section 3 of the Patents Act, 1970 excludes certain inventions from the ambit of patentability. Though there is an exhaustive list of fifteen exclusions from patentability mentioned in the Act, only three exclusions enumerated in clauses (d), (e) and (i) of section 3 are relevant from the perspective of pharmaceutical products in India. These clauses exclude new use of the known substance, mere admixture of components and methods of treatment respectively from the ambit of