AIA ENGINEERING LTD Vs. CONTROLLER OF PATENTS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) A patent application bearing number 2769/DEL/1997 was filed by one Hubert Francois on 29-09-1997. On 16-07-2002, a letter of assignment was given in favour of Respondent no. 2 by Hubert Francois. Respondent no. 2 requested the Controller of Patents to examine the application vide letter dated 9-01-2004 The First Examination Report was issued by the Controller of Patents to the representative of Respondent No. 2 on 9-02-2004 The India Patent Application was published in the Patent Journal on 3-06-2005.

(2.) Respondent no. 2 is stated to have requested the Controller of Patents, vide letter dated 02-09-2005, to carry out certain corrections/clerical errors in the claims of the patent. The same are stated to have been allowed by the Assistant Controller on 06-09-2005. Patent no. 197257 was granted in favour of Respondent no. 2 on 2-12-2005.

(3.) Petitioner submitted that on coming to know of the patent granted in favour of respondent no. 2, inquiries were made and the file relating to the said patent was inspected. It was found that vide a noting dated 06-09-2005, certain amendments were carried out to the original specifications of the patent published on 3-06-2005. Aggrieved by the same a review application was filed by the petitioner on 18-01-2006 to recall the order of Respondent no. 1 dated 06- 09-2005 on the ground that such amendments were not clerical errors and the grant of such amendments amounted to fraud on the patent office and on the public at large. The amendments questioned by the petitioner were the substitution of the words "homogenous phase" instead of "homogenous Solid Solution" in Claim 1 ; substitution of "pad" in place of "roller" in Claim 1 and other claims; and the substitution of "by volume" in place of "by weight" in claim 4.