India: Patent

On 31 July 1995, India heard its first mobile ring, when the then Union Minister of Communications spoke from Delhi to the then Chief Minister of West Bengal in Kolkata. For most of the two decades that followed, India consumed mobile phones without making them. In 2014, the country had only two mobile phone manufacturing units and was approximately 78% import dependent, with roughly 75% of domestic demand in 2014-15 being met through imports. Today, India has over 300 mobile manufacturing units and imports account for about 0.02% of domestic demand.

Patent pendency remains one of the most significant challenges in U.S. patent prosecution. Average first-action wait times range from approximately 20 to 29 months across Technology Centers, creating real costs for startups seeking investor credibility, life sciences companies racing toward product launches, and technology firms defending competitive market position.

In ANI Media Pvt. Ltd. v. Open AI OpCo LLC, CS(COMM) 1028/2024, the Delhi High Court delivered a significant judgment on the intersection of copyright law and Generative Artificial Intelligence. Deciding an application for interim injunction, the Court examined questions concerning the use of copyrighted works for training Large Language Models (LLMs), the scope of copyright infringement arising from AI-generated outputs, the applicability of the fair dealing exception under Section 52 of the Copyright Act, 1957, and the territorial jurisdiction of Indian courts over AI developers operating through servers located overseas.

The India-UK Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), in force since 15 July 2026, is often described in terms of tariffs and market access. But for businesses with valuable brands, patents, or cross-border investment plans, two other chapters matter just as much: intellectual property and investment. The two areas, however, have developed very differently under CETA. IP protection is comprehensive and detailed. Investment protection, by contrast, is conspicuously absent in the form most investors expect.

This comprehensive newsletter examines landmark intellectual property decisions from Q2 2026, spanning trade mark disputes over deceptive similarity and prior use...

The June 2026 edition of Dentons Link Legal IP & Technology Newsletter examines the global intellectual property ecosystem's strong momentum, featuring record-high filings, AI-driven innovation surges, and pivotal rulings that reflect technological advancement and evolving regulatory priorities. From bizarre patent cases like motorized pasta forks to multimillion-dollar verdicts collapsed by procedural flaws, the newsletter explores landmark decisions in pharmaceutical patents, trademark enforcement, and AI

As employees adapt to utilizing AI technologies in generating their work output, there exists a major disconnect among IP laws (both globally and in India) regarding who owns the copyright, patent, or trade secret in a work that was produced using AI technologies. Is it the employer, employee, or AI tool provider; all three parties could have an interest in these types of works?

The SHANTI Act, 2025 replaces this blanket denial with a regime of supervised innovation as the Central Government now has the authority to grant patents for nuclear-related inventions, provided they are intended for peaceful uses.

The Madras High Court has ruled that defendants in patent infringement cases face a significantly higher burden of proof when claiming protection under Section 107A of the Patents Act, 1970.