- Case number
- CMA(PT)/29/2023
- Court
- Madras High Court
- Date of judgment
- Judge
- Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy
- Outcome
- Set aside
Headnote
Refusal for want of proof of right under section 7(2) set aside. Section 6(1)(b) permits the assignee of the true and first inventor to apply, and section 7(2) requires proof of that right within the period prescribed by Rule 10, six months from filing, which the applicant met. One inventor had written the date on which he signed his declaration, and the Controller read that as the date of assignment. The Court held there is a distinction between the date of assignment and the date of the declaration relating to it, and the impugned order was the consequence of conflating the two. The corresponding United States assignment and inventors' declaration showed each inventor had assigned and that the assignee was entitled to claim rights in any corresponding foreign application, and the inventors were employees whose invention arose in the course of employment. A preliminary objection that no appeal lay was rejected: the order was a refusal under section 15, against which section 117A gives an appeal.
Headnote by BRB Legal, written from the judgment: a summary for reference, not legal advice. Read the judgment itself before relying on it.