Section 116 of the Patents Act, 1970
Appellate Board
Section 116 once named the tribunal that heard patent appeals; it was removed when that tribunal was abolished in 2021.
Official legal text
This provision has been omitted, but its number remains. Statutes here are amended by omission rather than renumbering, which keeps every other number stable. Anyone reading a file, an order or a commentary from the period when it applied will meet this number and need to know what it covered.
The authority is the enacted text, not this page. Where our wording and the official provision, or an applicable Gazette notification, do not match, the official material prevails.
What this section says, in plain language
For about fourteen years, patent appeals in India did not go to a court at all. They went to a tribunal. Section 116 was the provision that identified that tribunal. It said that the Appellate Board referred to throughout the Patents Act was the body set up under the Trade Marks Act, 1999, known as the Intellectual Property Appellate Board or IPAB. The Patents (Amendment) Act, 2002 added this arrangement, and IPAB actually began taking patent work from 2007. The section also dealt with who could sit on a patent case, requiring a Technical Member with a background in patents so that scientific questions were not decided by lawyers alone.
The Tribunals Reforms Act, 2021 shut IPAB down and omitted Section 116 together with the other Appellate Board provisions of this Chapter. Patent work went back to the constitutional courts. Today an appeal against a listed decision of the Controller is filed in the High Court under Section 117A, a petition to revoke a granted patent goes to the High Court under Section 64, and rectification of the Register is sought under Section 71. Cases that were pending before IPAB on the day it closed were transferred to the High Courts. Delhi, Madras and Calcutta High Courts have since created Intellectual Property Divisions with their own procedural rules, so patent disputes are now heard by benches that handle IP regularly.
Why this section matters
Anyone reading older patent judgments, textbooks or blog posts that still speak of appealing to the Appellate Board.
At the moment you lose before the Controller and start looking for the forum that will hear you next.
Nothing today. It is a historical signpost that explains why older decisions carry the letters IPAB.
You may file in a forum that no longer exists, waste the appeal window, and have to beg the High Court to condone the delay.
How it works in practice
An old citation that sends a reader to the wrong door
Ananya Rao, a final-year law student in Pune, is helping a friend who runs Saral Filters Pvt Ltd. The Controller has refused the company's patent application. Ananya searches online and finds a 2016 article that confidently says the remedy is an appeal to the Intellectual Property Appellate Board within three months, with the Board sitting in benches at Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Ahmedabad. She drafts the appeal in that format and looks for the Board's filing counter. There is none. IPAB stopped functioning in 2021 and Section 116, which created its role in patent matters, was omitted at the same time. The correct step now is an appeal to the High Court under Section 117A, filed as a court proceeding under that High Court's rules, with the Controller as respondent. Ananya has to redraft the memorandum of appeal in the High Court's format and file it before the three-month window closes. The law on refusal did not change; only the forum did.
Simplified illustration only. Actual legal outcomes depend on the facts.
Key points to remember
- Section 116 identified the Appellate Board (IPAB) as the forum for patent appeals; it no longer exists in the Act.
- The Tribunals Reforms Act, 2021 abolished IPAB and moved patent appeals, revocation and rectification to the High Courts.
- Read Section 117A for appeals today, Section 64 for revocation and Section 71 for rectification of the Register.
- Judgments delivered by IPAB before 2021 still exist and are still cited; only the forum for new matters has changed.
Connected provisions
The Patents Act sets the requirement; the Patents Rules, 2003 set the procedure that carries it out. Parliament passes the Act and the Central Government makes the Rules, so the two are separate instruments. We list the connected rules here to take you from the principle to the paperwork.
Forms, deadlines and fees
Where a fee is payable under this provision, the figure comes from the First Schedule. Categories of applicant are charged at different rates, and electronic filing is treated differently from paper filing, so an accurate number can only come from the Schedule in force on the day you file. How Indian patent fees work.
Amendment history
What changed in this provision, newest first. Read the footnotes in the official consolidated text for the full record.
- 2021The Tribunals Reforms Act, 2021The section was omitted. The Appellate Board was wound up and appeals and revocation applications moved to the High Courts.
- 2005The Patents (Amendment) Act, 2005One clause was dropped from the provision dealing with the qualifications of the Board's members. Attribution pending reviewer confirmation.
- 2002The Patents (Amendment) Act, 2002The section was inserted, making the board set up under trade mark law the appellate body for patent matters as well.
Compiled from official consolidated texts and Gazette notifications. See the site-wide change log.
Related judgments
You will not find case summaries under this heading today. Each one must pass a legal review before it appears, and that work has not been completed for this provision. If you are researching decided cases, use a law report or a court database in the meantime. How case notes are prepared.
Questions people ask about Section 116
Does the Intellectual Property Appellate Board still hear patent appeals?
No. IPAB was abolished by the Tribunals Reforms Act, 2021, and Section 116, which had made it the appellate forum for patents, was omitted along with the rest of the Appellate Board provisions. Appeals against the listed decisions of the Controller are now filed in the High Court under Section 117A. Petitions to revoke a patent go to the High Court under Section 64, and applications to rectify the Register go there under Section 71. Matters pending before IPAB when it closed were transferred to the High Courts.
Are old IPAB orders still valid law?
Orders that IPAB passed while it functioned remain binding on the parties unless a court has set them aside, and its reasoning is still cited for persuasive value in patent arguments. What ended in 2021 was IPAB's power to take new matters, not the legal effect of what it had already decided. When you read an IPAB order today, check whether a High Court or the Supreme Court has since taken a different view on the same question, because the case law has moved on in several areas.
Not sure which forum hears your patent dispute?
MYCrave Consultancy maps your patent problem to the right forum and the right remedy under the current law.
You will be speaking with MYCrave Consultancy & Services, the firm that operates this platform. General questions are answered free; matter‑specific work is quoted before anything is done.