Section 117 of the Patents Act, 1970
Staff of Appellate Board
Section 117 provided the staff and officers for the patent Appellate Board and was removed when that Board was abolished.
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.
Read this as a plain-language summary. If it and the official text, or a relevant Gazette notification, say different things, the official text and the notification are what count.
What this section says, in plain language
A tribunal cannot run on judges alone. It needs a registry to accept filings, number them, issue notices, keep records and publish orders. Section 117 was the housekeeping provision that made this possible for the Appellate Board. It obliged the Central Government to provide the Board with officers and employees, and it placed them under the control of the Chairman of the Board, who could decide how their duties were carried out. Pay, service conditions and similar matters were left to be fixed by the Central Government.
When the Tribunals Reforms Act, 2021 abolished the Intellectual Property Appellate Board, this support provision went with it, and Section 117 was omitted. There is nothing left to apply. Filings that would once have gone to a tribunal registry now go to the registry of the High Court that has jurisdiction, and are handled under that High Court's own rules on numbering, service, listing and record keeping. In High Courts that have set up an Intellectual Property Division, patent appeals and revocation petitions are listed before benches assigned to intellectual property work.
Why this section matters
Readers tracing how patent appeals were administered before 2021, and anyone following an old procedural reference.
Only when reading historical material or a file that began its life before IPAB closed.
No current right or duty. The registry functions it described are now performed by High Court registries.
Little practical risk, except confusion about where papers are filed and how a patent matter is listed.
How it works in practice
Where the papers actually go now
Meera Suresh, an in-house counsel at Vindhya Agritech Ltd in Nagpur, is handed an old office file about a patent matter. The file has a covering note describing how the appeal was to be lodged with the Deputy Registrar of the Appellate Board, how the registry would scrutinise it for defects, and how a diary number would be issued before numbering. None of that applies now. The Board's registry, which Section 117 had provided for, ceased to exist when the tribunal was abolished in 2021. Meera's team now files the appeal in the High Court, pays court fees as prescribed by that High Court, and follows its rules on scrutiny, defects and listing. Because the matter concerns a patent, it is listed before the High Court's Intellectual Property Division, where the timelines and case management practice are set by that court. The substantive grounds Meera argues are unchanged; only the office that receives the papers and the rules of filing are different.
Simplified illustration only. Actual legal outcomes depend on the facts.
Key points to remember
- Section 117 dealt only with the staff and registry of the Appellate Board, not with any right of a patent applicant.
- It was omitted by the Tribunals Reforms Act, 2021 when the Board itself was abolished.
- High Court registries now perform these functions for patent appeals, revocation petitions and rectification applications.
- Filing procedure today comes from the relevant High Court rules, including Intellectual Property Division rules where they exist.
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
Fees are prescribed in the First Schedule to the Patents Rules. Because the Schedule is revised from time to time, and charges different amounts to different categories of applicant and for physical as against electronic filing, this page describes the fee without stating a figure. 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 along with the rest of the Appellate Board provisions.
- 2002The Patents (Amendment) Act, 2002The section was inserted to provide for the staff of the appellate body and their duties.
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 117
Why does the Patents Act still show Section 117 if it has been omitted?
Indian statutes usually keep the number and the heading and mark the provision as omitted, rather than renumbering everything that follows. Renumbering would break every cross-reference, judgment and textbook that cites the Act. So the entry stays visible as a marker that something used to be there. For a reader, the practical meaning is simple: there is no live obligation under Section 117, and any procedure it once supported must now be traced to the High Court rules that replaced it.
Who handles patent appeal paperwork today?
The registry of the High Court where the appeal is filed. It receives the memorandum of appeal, checks it for defects, numbers it, issues notice to the respondent, which in an appeal from the Controller's decision is normally the Controller of Patents, and lists the matter for hearing. Several High Courts, including Delhi, have framed dedicated Intellectual Property Division rules that cover pleadings, documents, confidentiality clubs and case management in patent matters. Check the rules of the specific High Court before you prepare the papers.
Need help filing a patent matter in the right registry?
MYCrave Consultancy guides inventors and companies through current patent appeal and revocation procedure in India.
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