MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court has come to the rescue of a researcher who secured a patent for his invention in fuel cells and biomedical applications in the United States, but was denied registration in India due to disputes with his PhD guide and the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT-B).
After hearing both sides, the high court held that the documentary evidence on record made it abundantly clear that Patil was the recognised owner of the invention It observed that the Controller of Patents’ order was silent on its own records, which show Patil as the applicant, but kept reverting to IIT-B each time, while the institute and Patil’s guide also kept disputing his ownership of the intellectual property. The inventor, Dr Tarkeshwar Patil, had approached the high court after his patent application, filed way back in August 2013, was rejected by the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trademarks, in July 2025.
“It is remarkable that he is a protected patentee in the USA, but the home country’s statutory framework to grant the same protection has been mired in tragic circumstances,” said a single-judge bench of justice Somasekhar Sundaresan. “Patil has thereafter been made to run from pillar to post – in all, costing the invention statutory patent protection for 13 years out of the 20-year protection available in law and that too at the hands of an institution (IIT-B) that claims to be desirous of being declared the owner but has not even appealed the rejection of the patent application,” the court said.
The court also rapped the Controller of Patents for adopting an incorrect approach while rejecting the patent application. Restoring the patent application, with Patil as the applicant, the court further ordered that it be assigned to a senior officer who has not dealt with it before, and that it be decided within eight weeks.
