An application for patent may be opposed on any of the grounds as specified in section 25(1) of the Indian Patent Act, 1970. Other than this an application cannot be opposed on any other ground. There are basically two types of opposition that is opposition before grant of patent and opposition after grant but before one year from the date of publication of the grant. The different grounds of opposition are obtaining wrongfully, prior publication in any Indian specification filed after 1st of January 1912, or prior publication in India or elsewhere in any other document, prior claim in concurrent application, prior public use in India lack of inventive step, invention not patentable, insufficient description of invention in question, failure to disclose information pertaining to foreign application, convention application not made within specified time, non- disclosure of source, anticipation having regard to the knowledge available within any local or indigenous community in India. No ground other than the ground mentioned above can be considered for the purpose of opposition. The rights of opponent in an opposition matter are very limited and they are quite clearly laid down under section 25 of the Act. At the opposition stage, if the applicant wants to amend the claims to remove a false statement he must prove before the court that the false statement was made in good faith and clear knowledge before the leave to amend can be granted. It is to be noted that opposition should not be filed for the sake of delaying a particular patent application; it should be filed only if there exists a possible loss to the opponent by grant of the same.
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