Intellectual Property Laws: Patents, Trademarks, Copyright and Designs — Practice

Question 1

What is the term of a patent under the Patents Act, 1970, and from when is it counted?

Accepted Answer

20 years, counted from the date of filing.

Question 2

How many years is a trademark registration valid for before renewal is needed?

Accepted Answer

10 years.

Question 3

What is the maximum total duration of design protection under the Designs Act, 2000?

Accepted Answer

15 years (10 years initial, plus a 5-year renewal).

Question 4

State the copyright term for (a) a novel written by an individual author and (b) a cinematograph film.

Accepted Answer

(a) Life of the author plus 60 years, counted from the calendar year following death. (b) 60 years from the year of publication, since a film does not have a single identifiable individual author in the same sense.

Question 5

Explain Section 3(d) of the Patents Act and the specific practice it targets.

Accepted Answer

Section 3(d) bars patenting the mere discovery of a new form of a known substance that does not enhance the substance's known efficacy — it specifically targets pharmaceutical 'evergreening', where minor variants of an existing drug are patented to extend protection without a genuine therapeutic improvement.

Question 6

When does compulsory licensing become available under the Patents Act, and on what grounds?

Accepted Answer

3 years after grant, on grounds including that reasonable public requirements have not been satisfied, the patented invention is not available at a reasonably affordable price, or the invention has not been worked in India.

Question 7

Compare the renewal structures of a patent, a trademark and a design, explaining why a patent cannot simply be renewed like the other two.

Accepted Answer

A patent has a fixed 20-year term from filing with no renewal mechanism at all — once it expires, the invention enters the public domain permanently. A trademark has a 10-year term renewable indefinitely in further 10-year blocks, so it can in principle last forever with continued use and renewal fees. A design has a 10-year term extendable by one further 5-year renewal only, capping total protection at 15 years with no further extension. The policy reason a patent cannot be renewed like a trademark is that patent law deliberately trades a strong, time-limited monopoly for public disclosure of the invention, whereas trademark protection is tied to an ongoing, non-monopolistic source-identifying function that can legitimately continue indefinitely as long as the mark remains in genuine use.

Question 8

A candidate states in an answer that Indian design protection currently follows a '5+5+5' renewable structure. Evaluate this statement and give the correct current position.

Accepted Answer

This statement is incorrect as a description of current law. The '5+5+5' model (still totalling 15 years) is only a proposed reform under discussion and has not been enacted. The current, correct position is that design registration lasts an initial 10 years, extendable by a further 5-year renewal, for a maximum total of 15 years — the same total duration the proposal would preserve, but under a different (and currently, the only legally operative) structure.

Practice — Intellectual Property Laws: Patents, Trademarks, Copyright and Designs

Sign in to save attempts to your dashboard and track your accuracy over time

Find a verified tutor

Join a live course

Browse coaching centres

About

Categories

Support

Documentation

Get Study Tips & Updates

Download Our App

Download for iOS

Download for Android

Popular Cities