The patent office has refused to grant a patent to Tata Global Beverages (formerly known as Tata Tea) for its ‘invention’ regarding a process for preparation of flavoured herbal tea. Hindustan Unilever (HUL) had filed the pre-grant opposition before the patent office.
HUL in its opposition argued that the said composition only comprises a number of herbs in specific amount without any supporting data of activity of individual herb or combination of herbs, leaving the composition as mere
ad-mixture.
The FMCG major which competes with Tata Global Beverages also submitted that the latter’s was not an invention and not patentable on the ground that it results in just an ad-mixture, devoid of synergistic effect.
S Chattopadhyay, assistant controller of patents and designs, Kolkata, ruled that the issue of insufficiency ground as raised by the opponent (HUL) in the pre-grant proceedings has been pointed out appropriately and applicant was unable to address the same .
“So, in view of the facts and circumstances of the application against the pre-grant opposition, I hereby accept the representation filed by HUL under Section 25(1) to read with Rule 55(1) and refuse the patent application,” the assistant controller said.
According to documents filed by Tata Global Beverages, the patent application has claimed a new flavoured herbal tea composition comprising 1% to 8% of Darjeeling Broken, 10% to 50% of flavour concentrate and the rest being tea particles.
However, the patent office has observed that Tata Global Beverages had submitted the patent filing without appropriate clarification for the unique taste for the tea composition. It was unable to find out the technical advancement of the application as compared to the existing knowledge.
“ The applicant does not take effort to prove upon the issue related to inventive step. Without any substantial document supportive data, I am unable to find the reason for overcoming the ground of ‘non-inventive’ raised by the opponent in the petition,” the assistant controller said.