In a recent judgment, Delhi High Court decided on interpretation of section 107A of Patents Act and if same included export of patent products.
The Petitioner had submitted that section 107A does not include export of patented goods in India. In fact, it limits a non-patentee to only sell goods within the jurisdiction of India for purposes defined under Section 107A. The further relied on other sections of Patent Act which have expressly used term export and thereby drew Hon’ble Court’s attention to the fact that Act interprets export and selling as two separate terms.
However, the Hon’ble Court on detailed analysis of section 107A, disagreed with Petitioner’s interpretation that ‘selling’ in section 107A excludes export of patent goods. Instead, the Court observed that selling is not limited by jurisdiction. Further, the Court observed that the provisions related to use of word ‘export’ referred by the petitioner deal only with ‘export‘ of patented products / process and naturally had to use the words ̳export‘ or ̳exporting‘.
Finally, the Court held that ‘export’ of a patented invention for purposes defined under section 107A (like experimental purposes) is also covered under said section of the Patents Act, 1970 and thus does not amount to patent infringement.
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