ALBEMARLE CORPORATION Vs. CONTROLLER OF PATENTS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant, Albemarle Corporation, a company incorporated in the United States of America, prefers the present appeal under Sec. 117A of the Patents Act, 1970 ('Patents Act') against the impugned order dtd. 12/5/2021, passed by the Controller of Patents, whereby, Indian Patent Application No. 2897/DELNP/2012 ('subject application'), was refused under Sec. 15 of the Patents Act, in respect of the invention, titled as 'SOLVENT SYSTEMS HAVING NO FLASH POINT AND METHODS USING SUCH SOLVENT SYSTEMS FOR DISSOLVING RIGID POLYURETHANE FOAMS".

(2.) The appellant's patent application has been refused under Sec. 15 of the Patents Act on the grounds that the subject matter of the claims or inventions in the subject application, lacks novelty over cited document D4, lacks inventive step in view of cited documents, i.e., D1-D4 and does not meet the enablement requirement under Sec. 10(4) of the Patents Act.

(3.) The appellant had filed the subject application on 4/4/2012. The respondent issued a First Examination Report ('FER') on 26/10/2017, raising various formal and technical objections. The appellant submitted a detailed response to the FER on 21/3/2018, and thereafter attended hearings on 19/10/2020 and 23/2/2021. In support of its case, the appellant also filed written submissions on 6/10/2020, 3/11/2020, and 10/3/2021.