Rejections Under Section 3(B) Of The Indian Patent Act

As per the provision of ¹ Section 3 and subsection (b) of the Patent Act, "inventions of primary or intended use or commercial exploitation of which could be contrary to public order or morality, or which causes serious prejudice to human, animal or plant life or health or to the environment" are non-patentable. The non-patentability objection under the provision of Section 3(b) is not common due to which the said provision is not familiar to many as compared to other subsections of Section 3. However, over the past few years, some of the applications have started receiving non-patentability objections regarding Section 3(b). Based on the provision of Section 3(b), recently two patents were rejected by the Indian Patent Office (IPO) in which the patent claim applications were related to nicotine delivery devices.