JUDGMENT

SANJEEV NARULA, J.:

1. This judgment addresses the refusal of Indian Patent Application No. 201611041718 for the ‘PORTABLE VEHICLE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM’ (‘subject patent application’). The refusal order, issued by the Assistant Controller of Patents & Designs on 27th December, 2018 (‘the impugned order’), asserts that the subject patent does not meet the inventive step requirement as stipulated under Section 2(1)(ja) of the Indian Patent Act, 1970 (‘the Act’). Thus, according to the Controller, the subject patent fails to qualify as an invention under Section 2(1)(j) of the Act.

PROCEEDINGS LEADING TO THE PRESENT APPEAL:

2. The appellant applied for the subject patent on 6th December, 2016 before the Indian Patent Office (‘IPO’). Thereafter, the appellant filed the request for examination dated 1st December, 2017. Consequently, the First Examination Report (‘FER’) dated 21st March, 2018 was issued by the IPO claiming that the subject patent application lacked novelty and inventive step required under Section 2(1)(ja) of the Act. The FER was issued referencing prior art D1: US7103460B1, D2: DE60036650T2, and D3: US20140306817A1. Furthermore, the claims were found to be non- paten