LAW FOR ALL

Grant of Patent rights - “Drug Combination”- “A Non-Interacting Drug Combination for Treating Hyperlipidaemia in Mammals”. = This appeal is against the dismissal of the opposition to a Patent Application No.113/MUM/2000 under the “A Non-Interacting Drug Combination for Treating Hyperlipidaemia in Mammals”. The granted patent No.212310 was published on 25.01.2008. It was filed on 04.02.2000 originally bearing titled “Drug Combination” claiming priority from three U.K. Applications all of the year 1999. Post grant opposition was filed. An opposition Board was constituted and the opposition board recommended that the ground under Section 25(2)(b) was established by the opponent, the ground under Section 25(2)(g) was not established. However, the Opposition Board said that S. 25(2)(e) which is obviousness and Section 25(2)(f) was established by the opponent. The Controller held that the present invention was novel since no single document anticipated the invention and the person skilled in the art would not have found the invention obvious and that the prior art cannot be used to arrive at the present invention. The Controller also held that the invention did not fall under the provisions of Section 25(3)(d) or (3)(e) and therefore the objection relating to Section 25(2)(f) was not established. In these circumstances, the Controller did not accept the recommendation of the Board and rejected the opposition. = The Controllers have to remember in Opposition proceedings, that they must deal with the Opposition Board’s recommendations in their orders. They are free to agree or to disagree, but it is a crucial part of the records before the Controller. If they are accepting the recommendations, perhaps they need not deal with it at length. But when they disagree with it, as in this case, they must explain why and give reasons. 38. In the result, we confirm the decision of the Controller. The appeal is dismissed. No costs.