Patents Act 1970 Section 107a: Bolar Exemption and Parallel Import (2026)

Explainer · Patent Law

Updated for 2026 · Claw Editorial

Section 107A of the Patents Act, 1970 lists acts that are not patent infringement in India. A patent gives the owner strong rights, but Section 107A carves out two exceptions that the public interest needs. The first, clause (a), is the Bolar or research exemption: using a patented invention to develop and submit information needed for regulatory approval, so generics can be ready the day the patent expires. The second, clause (b), is parallel import: bringing in a patented product from a person who is duly authorised under the law to produce and sell it. This explainer sets out what each clause covers, the leading case, and the practical effect. Last verified October 2026.

01What Section 107A says

Section 107A was added to balance patent rights against two real needs: letting generic makers prepare for launch without waiting, and letting genuine patented goods move across borders. It says that the acts in clauses (a) and (b) shall not be considered as an infringement of patent rights.

Both clauses sit against the backdrop of Section 48, which gives the patentee the exclusive right to make, use, sell and import the invention. Section 107A tells you where those rights stop. For how infringement suits and jurisdiction work, see Section 104 and patent infringement jurisdiction.

02Clause (a): the Bolar exemption

Clause (a) is the research and regulatory exemption, often called the Bolar exemption after the American case that inspired it. It says that making, constructing, using, selling or importing a patented invention solely for uses reasonably related to the development and submission of information required under any law is not infringement. The law can be Indian law or the law of another country.

In plain words, a generic maker can work with a patented drug while the patent is still alive, but only to generate the data needed for regulatory approval, such as bioequivalence studies. This lets the generic version be ready to launch as soon as the patent expires, instead of starting the approval process only afterwards. The patentee still keeps the market to itself during the patent term; what the generic maker gains is the ability to prepare.

03Clause (b): parallel import

Clause (b) deals with parallel imports. It says that importing a patented product from a person who is duly authorised under the law to produce and sell or distribute the product is not infringement.

This reflects an exhaustion idea: once a patented product has been lawfully put on the market by someone authorised to do so, the patentee cannot use the patent to block its import into India. The wording was amended in 2005, and the current version turns on authorisation under the law rather than permission from the patentee, which has led to debate about exactly what law and what authorisation are meant.

04Does the Bolar exemption cover export?

The biggest Section 107A case asked whether clause (a) allows export of a patented product for research abroad. In Bayer Corporation v. Union of India, involving Natco and Alembic, Natco held a compulsory licence and wanted to export a small quantity of the active ingredient to another country for studies supporting a regulatory filing. Bayer argued that the word export does not appear in the section and that the deal was really commercial.

A Division Bench of the Delhi High Court, by its judgment of 22 April 2019, held that Section 107A is an independent provision and that selling, using or importing a patented product for the purposes in the section, whether within India or abroad, is lawful. It read export as falling within the exemption, subject to the goods being used only for the purposes the section allows. So a generic maker can export a patented product for research and regulatory use elsewhere, within those limits.

05A practical note

For a generic maker, Section 107A(a) is the legal basis for early development work. Keep the work tied to regulatory needs, because the exemption is only for uses reasonably related to developing and submitting information, not for building commercial stock during the patent term. For an importer, clause (b) matters where you source genuine patented goods from an authorised seller abroad.

Both clauses are fact sensitive and still debated, so a patentee may well challenge a claimed exemption. To see how patent rights are enforced and limited, see patent revocation and compulsory licensing, and for pharmaceutical patent disputes, see pharma patent litigation in India.

06Where Claw fits

Claw is an all-in-one legaltech platform for Indian advocates, law firms, and corporate legal teams, combining AI-based case search, an AI legal assistant (Legal GPT), case management, and compliance automation across all Indian courts and tribunals.

Whether an act falls within Section 107A often turns on how courts, especially the Delhi High Court, have read the Bolar and parallel import clauses. Claw lets you search more than 30 crore judgments and orders, with Supreme Court rulings from 1950 and High Court rulings from 1990, to read the Bayer v. Natco line of cases and other Section 107A rulings, with results in under 5 seconds. You can also track a live patent suit by party or advocate name across 9,102 courts, benches and forums. Claw does not use the documents you upload to train its AI models.

Create a free Claw account to research Section 107A rulings and follow a pending patent dispute, and use case search across Indian courts to find decisions on the research exemption and parallel imports.

07Sources and further reading

• India Code (official text of the Patents Act, 1970): indiacode.nic.in
• Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks: ipindia.gov.in
• Indian Kanoon (judgments on Section 107A and Bayer v. Natco): indiankanoon.org
• Claw: clawlaw.in

This explainer is general information, not legal advice. Patent exemptions turn on the facts, so check the current text and take advice from counsel before you act.

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