The Patent Act, 1970

Section 25(2)

Opposition to the patent

    At any time after the grant of patent but before the expiry of a period of one year from the date of publication of grant of a patent, any person interested may give notice of opposition to the Controller in the prescribed manner on any of the following grounds, namely:—

    1. that the patentee or the person under or through whom he claims, wrongfully obtained the invention or any part thereof from him or from a person under or through whom he claims;
    2. that the invention so far as claimed in any claim of the complete specification has been published before the priority date of the claim—
      1. in any specification filed in pursuance of an application for a patent made in India on or after the 1st day of January, 1912; or
      2. in India or elsewhere, in any other document:Provided that the ground specified in sub-clause (ii) shall not be available where such publication does not constitute an anticipation of the invention by virtue of sub-section (2) or sub-section (3) of section 29;
    3. that the invention so far as claimed in any claim of the complete specification is claimed in a claim of a complete specification published on or after the priority date of the claim of the patentee and filed in pursuance of an application for a patent in India, being a claim of which the priority date is earlier than that of the claim of the patentee;
    4. that the invention so far as claimed in any claim of the complete specification was publicly known or publicly used in India before the priority date of that claim.

      Explanation.—For the purposes of this clause, an invention relating to a process for which a patent is granted shall be deemed to have been publicly known or publicly used in India before the priority date of the claim if a product made by that process had already been imported into India before that date except where such importation has been for the purpose of reasonable trial or experiment only;

    5. that the invention so far as claimed in any claim of the complete specification is obvious and clearly does not involve any inventive step, having regard to the matter published as mentioned in clause (b) or having regard to what was used in India before the priority date of the claim;
    6. that the subject of any claim of the complete specification is not an invention within the meaning of this Act, or is not patentable under this Act;
    7. that the complete specification does not sufficiently and clearly describe the invention or the method by which it is to be performed;
    8. that the patentee has failed to disclose to the Controller the information required by section 8 or has furnished the information which in any material particular was false to his knowledge;
    9. that in the case of a patent granted on a convention application, the application for patent was not made within twelve months from the date of the first application for protection for the invention made in a convention country or in India by the patentee or a person from whom he derives title;
    10. that the complete specification does not disclose or wrongly mentions the source and geographical origin of biological material used for the invention;
    11. that the invention so far as claimed in any claim of the complete specification was anticipated having regard to the knowledge, oral or otherwise, available within any local or indigenous community in India or elsewhere,

      but on no other ground.