Rule 39 of the Patents Rules, 2003
Omitted provision
The opening rule of the omitted chapter that carried the procedure for exclusive marketing rights, a transitional right removed in 2005.
Official legal text
The number is still shown because Indian statutes are not renumbered when something is taken out. The provision is simply marked as omitted. Documents created before the change, including granted patents and decided cases, continue to cite it, so the reference has to remain understandable.
Nothing here replaces the statute. The official wording of the provision, together with any Gazette notification that applies to it, governs. This page only explains that material in ordinary language.
What this rule requires, step by step
Rule 39 opened Chapter V of the Patents Rules, 2003. That chapter existed to work the exclusive marketing rights scheme, which was India's bridge arrangement while the country prepared to allow product patents for medicines and agricultural chemicals. Between 1995 and 2005, applications for such products could be filed and held for later examination, and in the meantime a limited exclusive right to sell or distribute a product in India could be sought from the Controller. Chapter V told applicants how to ask for that right and how the Office would handle the request.
The whole chapter was taken out when the parent provisions in the Act were omitted by the Patents (Amendment) Act, 2005 and India moved to full product patent protection in these fields. With the enabling sections gone, the procedure had nothing left to serve. The number remains in the sequence marked as omitted, so that older commentaries and files that cite it still make sense, but nothing can be filed under it today. An innovator in the pharmaceutical or agrochemical field now takes the ordinary route: file a complete specification, request examination, and pursue a patent under the general provisions of the Act.
Why this rule matters
Researchers, students and lawyers studying India's transition to product patents, rather than anyone filing today.
Only historically, in relation to requests made before the 2005 amendment took effect.
Nothing now. It formerly carried part of the procedure for seeking exclusive marketing rights.
Confusion about how pharmaceutical filings were handled in India before 2005.
How it works in practice
A question in a classroom
At a patent law elective at a Kolkata law school, a student asked why India took ten years to start granting patents on medicines. The teacher drew a timeline on the board. From 1995, applications for pharmaceutical and agrochemical products could be filed and set aside for examination later. From 1999, a separate and much narrower right to sell or distribute an approved product could be applied for, and Chapter V of the 2003 Rules set out how to apply. From the start of 2005, product patents became available and the bridge was dismantled. The student then asked what happened to the rules themselves. The teacher opened the current Patents Rules on the classroom screen and scrolled to Chapter V. Every rule in it, from the first to the last, appeared as a single word: omitted. That, she said, is what a completed transition looks like in a statute book.
Simplified illustration only. Actual legal outcomes depend on the facts.
Key points to remember
- This rule was part of Chapter V, which handled exclusive marketing rights procedure.
- The chapter was omitted after the Patents (Amendment) Act 2005 removed the underlying provisions.
- Pharmaceutical and agrochemical inventions are now protected through ordinary patent applications.
Connected provisions
Rules and sections are cited differently and amended differently. On a rule page the connected sections are therefore kept in a separate list, so that a reader quoting this material can attribute each requirement to the correct instrument.
Forms, deadlines and fees
Any official fee connected with this provision is fixed by the First Schedule to the Patents Rules, not by the provision itself. The amount depends on who the applicant is and on whether the filing is made online or on paper, so no figures are reproduced here. 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.
- 2005The Patents (Amendment) Rules, 2005The rule was omitted with the whole chapter on exclusive marketing rights, after the parent provisions were dropped from the Act and product patents became available.
Compiled from official consolidated texts and Gazette notifications. See the site-wide change log.
Related judgments
No judgment summaries appear here yet. Our process requires a legal review of each case note before publication, covering the citation, the court and the point actually decided. Until a note for this provision has passed that check, the section stays empty rather than carrying unverified material. How case notes are prepared.
Questions people ask about Rule 39
What were exclusive marketing rights in India?
They were a temporary right, available before 2005, to sell or distribute a particular product in India while the patent application for it waited to be examined. They were far narrower than a patent and were tied to approvals obtained elsewhere. They existed because India had time to phase in product patents for medicines and agricultural chemicals, and needed an interim arrangement in the meantime. Once product patents became available in these fields, the scheme and its procedural rules were removed.
Can exclusive marketing rights still be applied for in India?
No. The sections of the Patents Act that created the scheme were omitted in 2005, and the chapter of the Patents Rules that carried the procedure was omitted as well. There is no form, no fee and no route. Anyone seeking protection for a pharmaceutical or agrochemical invention in India today files a patent application in the ordinary way and is examined under the current provisions, including the tests of novelty, inventive step and the subject matter exclusions.
Filing a medicine or crop chemical patent in India?
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