Rule 64 of the Patents Rules, 2003
Omitted provision
Rule 64 was part of the original opposition procedure in the Patents Rules and was removed when opposition was redesigned after the 2005 amendments.
Official legal text
Removal by omission is the standard method in Indian legislation. The provision stops having effect, yet the number stays so that the rest of the instrument is undisturbed. Older correspondence and rulings that mention this number are still read today, which is why the entry is kept and explained.
Treat this page as a guide. The provision as officially published, along with the Gazette notifications that apply to it, remains the governing text and overrides any simplification here.
What this rule requires, step by step
Chapter VI of the Patents Rules, 2003 carries the procedure for opposing a patent. When the Rules were first made, that chapter was built around the older form of opposition, in which a challenge was brought after an application had been accepted but before the patent was sealed. Rule 64 belonged to that original scheme. The Patents (Amendment) Act, 2005 rebuilt opposition completely. Section 25 was split into two tracks: a representation by way of opposition before grant, open to any person, and a formal notice of opposition after grant, open only to a person interested. Section 27, which allowed refusal without opposition in certain cases, was deleted at the same time.
Because the underlying scheme changed, the supporting rules had to change with it. New rules such as Rule 55A and Rule 63A were inserted, existing rules were renumbered in substance, and rules that no longer fitted, including Rule 64, were omitted by the amending rules that followed the 2005 Act. A reader looking for opposition procedure today should work through Rule 55 for pre-grant representations and Rules 55A to 63A for post-grant opposition, together with sections 25 and 26 of the Act. Rule 64 has no remaining function.
Why this rule matters
Anyone reading older opposition case law or commentary written before the 2005 restructuring.
Only when comparing the old opposition system with the present two-track system.
No procedural step and no right of challenge; those now come from Rule 55 and Rules 55A to 63A.
No direct harm, but following pre-2005 opposition procedure would mean missing the current forms, periods and Opposition Board stage.
How it works in practice
An old opposition precedent misleads a first draft
Meera Krishnan, a junior associate in a Kochi firm, is asked to prepare a challenge to a recently granted patent held by Bhavnagar Marine Coatings. She finds a well-reasoned decision from the early 2000s and copies its structure, including references to rules in the sixties of the Patents Rules. Her senior reviews the draft and explains that the case was decided under the opposition system as it stood before the Patents (Amendment) Act, 2005. Under the present system her client, being a person interested, must file a notice of opposition in the prescribed form within one year of the publication of the grant, along with a written statement and evidence, after which the Controller constitutes an Opposition Board of examiners to make a recommendation. None of that machinery existed when the old decision was written. Meera rewrites the challenge around the current rules, keeps the older decision only for its reasoning on inventive step, and files within the statutory year.
Simplified illustration only. Actual legal outcomes depend on the facts.
Key points to remember
- Rule 64 supported the pre-2005 form of opposition and no longer applies.
- The 2005 amendments split section 25 into pre-grant representation and post-grant opposition.
- Rule 55 now governs pre-grant representations; Rules 55A to 63A govern post-grant opposition.
- Older opposition decisions may still be useful on substance but not on procedure.
Connected provisions
Because this page covers a rule rather than a section, the related Act provisions are shown in their own list. The section tells you what the law requires. The rule, explained above, tells you how the Patent Office expects that requirement to be met.
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.
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 Rule 64
What replaced the old opposition procedure in the Patents Rules?
Two separate procedures replaced it. Before grant, any person may file a representation under section 25(1), and Rule 55 sets out how it is filed, tested for a prima facie case and decided. After grant, a person interested may file a notice of opposition under section 25(2) within one year of publication of the grant, and Rules 55A to 63A cover the notice, the written statement and evidence, the Opposition Board, the reply, the hearing and costs.
Can I still rely on judgments decided under the old opposition rules?
You can rely on them for legal reasoning about substantive questions such as novelty, inventive step, insufficiency or what counts as an invention. You should not rely on them for procedure, forms or time limits, because the steps changed substantially after 2005. When citing an older decision, check whether the point you are using depends on the old procedure. If it does, look for a decision under the present rules instead.
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