Abstract

Software patents are known to be a comparatively newer concept and due to their generally unfamiliar nature, they have proved to be quite gruelling and arduous in their examination. With the advent of the digital era, thousands of software patent applications reached the Indian Patent Office but their examination has proved to be immensely challenging due to the inconsistency in the Indian Patent law regime and also because of the restricted volume of precedents surrounding software patents. There have been ceaseless debates encircling the term ‘per se’ in S. 3(k) of the Patents Act, 1960 with respect to patent-eligible and patent-ineligible subject-matters. With the Ferid Allani order of 2020 by the IPAB, there was a remarkable shift in the method of examination of Computer Related Inventions. The order is noteworthy because the High Court of Delhi directed the IPO to examine the invention based on its ‘technical advantages’ and ‘technical efficiency’ rather than focusing on the form. This judgement however, doesn’t come without any drawbacks. This article focuses on the unpredictability of the Indian Patent law regime and the Guidelines on Computer related inventions coupled with the complicated nature of software inventions. The article in its latter portion attempts to analyze the order by the IPAB to understand what its possible consequences could be on future patent applications related to software inventions and on what aspects both the IPAB and the High Court could have been more elaborate.

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