{"id":4237,"date":"2019-07-24T10:38:10","date_gmt":"2019-07-24T05:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/one\/sinapse-blog\/?p=4237"},"modified":"2025-06-24T10:57:24","modified_gmt":"2025-06-24T05:27:24","slug":"inventive-step-ipab-case-combining-contrivances-patent-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/inventive-step-ipab-case-combining-contrivances-patent-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Combining Contrivances Give Rise to Inventive Step? &#8211; An IPAB Case Note"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<p>This post was published on 24th January, 2014.<\/p>\n<p>Eaton Electric BV Vs. Deputy Controller of Patents and Designs,\u00a0Intellectual Property Appellate Board\u00a0(IPAB) Decision &#8211; Mp. No. 86\/210, Decided on 14th July, 2011.<\/p>\n<p>Invention:<br \/>\nA hygrometer is used in combination with the arrangement of a moisture absorbing agent, which is provided inside the enclosed housing of a Switch Gear.<\/p>\n<p>Prior Art:<br \/>\n1. Switch gear in enveloping housing filled with dry air to control Arc energy.<br \/>\n2. Introduction of moisture absorbing agent to reduce water content in the air.<br \/>\nQuestion: Does the invention possess an inventive step in light of the prior art?<br \/>\nThe invention is an improvement over existing switch gears, the modern versions of which have been in existence for a long time. You may visit Wikipedia to\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Switchgear\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">see what a Switch Gear is<\/a>,\u00a0for a basic background on Switch Gears. The specification claims several advantages such as reducing the size of housing, reducing the need for fool proof insulation, and increasing the shelf life of switch gears. Overall, the invention is claimed to have great economic significance.<\/p>\n<p>After reviewing the cited prior art, the IPAB sided with the decision of the patent office to reject the patent application based on the lack of inventive step. The IPAB observed that combining the prior art to arrive at the invention was obvious to a person skilled in the art, posing no technical hurdles whatsoever to merit patentability. As per IPAB, switch gear housing filled with dry air was known, the role of the moisture absorbent was known, and the method of calculating the quantity of absorbent required was also known. It would\u00a0not be\u00a0very difficult, based on the knowledge available, for a person skilled in the art to introduce a hygrometer to measure moisture content, and to remove such moisture using an absorbent, making the invention a mere combination, and therefore,\u00a0 obvious.<\/p>\n<p>Image Source\/Attribution <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Hygrometer#\/media\/File:Haar-Hygrometer.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here<\/a> (This image is in the public domain)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This post reviews an IPAB decision on whether combining known elements in switch gears meets the inventive step requirement in Indian patent law. The case clarifies the threshold for patentability in combination inventions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":5,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,14],"tags":[10267,83,199,10268,753,112,2097,3454],"class_list":["post-4237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-intellectual-property","category-patents","tag-combination-inventions","tag-inventive-step","tag-ipab","tag-moisture-absorbing-agent","tag-patent-law-india","tag-patentability","tag-prior-art","tag-switch-gear"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4237"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":139570,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4237\/revisions\/139570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}