Theoretical underpinnings of patent law: Decisions of the Supreme Court of India

Raza, Aqa (2022) Theoretical underpinnings of patent law: Decisions of the Supreme Court of India. Journal of Intellectual Property Rights, 27 (4). pp. 285-289. ISSN 0975-1076

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Abstract

This Paper seeks to examine the theoretical underpinnings of The Patents Act, 1970 (Patents Act), as constructed by the Supreme Court of India (Supreme Court) in the last 71 years. An analysis of decisions of the Supreme Court reveals that: (i) in none of the cases, validity of The Patents Act was challenged; (ii) unlike the decisions on copyright and design laws where the Court invoked both Labour and Utilitarian frameworks as supplementary and complimentary to each other to justify the ‘why’ of two distinct copyrights envisaged by The Copyright Act, 1957 and The Designs Act, 2000, the Court in patent cases has used only Utilitarian Theory; (iii) Court has not ignored Natural Right and Labour theories as in its opinion Natural Right justification is only a means to achieve the end of social good; (iv) in the opinion of the Court, both ‘sense’ and ‘nonsense’ of Bentham may coexist as means and end; and (v) protection of patent rewards labour put in by the inventor and in exchange provides invention and knowledge to the society. Paper argues that the Court should have applied judicially manageable standards to rigorously scrutinize the theoretical underpinnings of Patent Law from all possible angles.

Item Type: Article
Keywords: Utilitarian Theory | The Patents Act, 1970 | Theoretical Underpinning | Supreme Court of India | Ratiocination | Intellectual Property | Labour Theory | Natural Right Theory Publici Juris | Society | Scientific Research Nonsense on Stilts |Industrial Progress | Invention | Discovery Patent System | Common Law | Utility
Subjects: Social Sciences and humanities > Social Sciences > Law and Legal Studies
JGU School/Centre: Jindal Global Law School
Depositing User: Amees Mohammad
Date Deposited: 23 Aug 2022 04:26
Last Modified: 09 Nov 2022 09:23
Official URL: http://op.niscpr.res.in/index.php/JIPR/article/vie...
URI: https://pure.jgu.edu.in/id/eprint/4286

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