Section 98 of the Patents Act, 1970
Provision relating to licences of right
The last of the omitted licences of right provisions; the scheme it belonged to ended when India moved to a TRIPS compliant licensing system.
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
This is the final section in the group that once carried the licences of right scheme. Taken together, Sections 95 to 98 allowed certain patents to be treated as permanently open to licensing, with terms settled administratively if the parties could not agree. The scheme was a deliberate policy choice of the 1970 Act, which set out to build Indian manufacturing capability, particularly in medicines and chemicals, by limiting how far a patent could be used to keep others out.
The whole group was omitted by the Patents (Amendment) Act, 2002, brought into force in 2003, as part of the sequence of amendments in 1999, 2002 and 2005 that made Indian patent law TRIPS compliant. The policy did not disappear; it was rebuilt in a different form. The public interest concerns that once justified automatic endorsement now appear as the principles in Section 83, the grounds for a compulsory licence in Section 84, the emergency route in Section 92, the export route in Section 92A, and the Government use provisions in Sections 99 to 103. The difference is that today each case is decided on its own facts, after an application, evidence and a hearing before the Controller.
Why this section matters
Students, policy researchers and practitioners tracing how India's patent licensing rules changed between 1970 and 2005.
In historical or comparative work; it has no operation in any live patent matter.
Nothing under the present Act. It formed part of a repealed licensing scheme.
No current risk arises from ignoring it, but the underlying public interest concerns are still live in Sections 83, 84, 92 and 92A.
How it works in practice
Tracing the shift from 1970 to 2005
A policy team preparing a briefing note for a state innovation council is asked why India's patent law looks so different before and after 2005. Working through a bare Act, they find Sections 95 to 98 marked as omitted and use them as a marker of the change. Before the amendments, whole classes of patents could be treated as open to licensing. After the 2002 amendment took effect in 2003, and after product patents in medicines returned in 2005, the same public interest concerns were routed through case by case decisions instead. Their note ends up recommending that anyone seeking access to a patented technology today should begin with Section 84, keep a clear record of licence requests, and be prepared for a contested hearing before the Controller.
Simplified illustration only. Actual legal outcomes depend on the facts.
Key points to remember
- Completes the group of provisions that carried the licences of right scheme under the 1970 Act.
- Omitted by the Patents (Amendment) Act, 2002, brought into force in 2003, as part of India's TRIPS alignment.
- The policy concerns it served now run through Sections 83, 84, 92, 92A and the Government use provisions.
Connected provisions
- ActSection 83General principles applicable to working of patented inventions
- ActSection 84Compulsory licences
- ActSection 92Special provision for compulsory licences on notifications by Central Government
- ActSection 95Provision relating to licences of right Omitted
- ActSection 97Provision relating to licences of right Omitted
A section tells you what the law is. A rule tells you how the Patent Office runs it from day to day. The two are kept apart here so that a reader can quote the section accurately and then look up the current rule for the practical steps.
Forms, deadlines and fees
We do not publish fee amounts. The First Schedule sets them, and they differ by category of applicant, such as a natural person, a startup, a small entity or another applicant, and by the mode of filing. Check the Schedule currently in force before you calculate anything. How Indian patent fees work.
Related judgments
This part of the page is reserved for summaries of decided cases. They are added one at a time, after review by a person qualified to confirm that the summary matches the judgment. Nothing has been cleared for this provision so far, so there is nothing to show. How case notes are prepared.
Questions people ask about Section 98
What should I read instead of Sections 95 to 98?
Start with Section 83, which states the principles on working of patented inventions in India, and then Section 84, which sets out who may apply for a compulsory licence, when and on what grounds. Section 91 covers licences where one patent blocks another, Section 92 the route after a Central Government notification in an emergency, and Section 92A licences to export medicines. If a Government body is the user, Sections 99 to 103 apply instead. Procedure for these applications is in Section 87 and Rules 96 to 102.
Did removing licences of right change India's approach to public health?
It changed the mechanism rather than the objective. Automatic, category wide openness was replaced by decisions taken case by case. The public health concerns are still written into the Act: Section 83 says patents must not impede the protection of public health and that the benefit of an invention should reach the public at reasonably affordable prices, Section 92 provides a fast route after a Government notification during an emergency, and Section 92A allows manufacture for export to countries that cannot make the medicine themselves.
Not sure which patent licensing route applies today?
MYCrave explains the current compulsory licence and Government use routes that replaced the old licences of right scheme.
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.