The Madras High Court has ruled that the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras' (IIT-M) method of doping potassium into ammonium perchlorate lacks an inventive step and is not eligible for a patent. The court dismissed IIT-M's appeal against the rejection of its patent application, stating that the claimed invention was not patentable as the processes were well known and did not result in a new product. The application was filed in 2013 and published in 2015, with objections raised in 2018. The Controller of Patents and Designs rejected the application in 2020, leading to an appeal before the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB), which was later transferred to the High Court in 2023. The court ruled that the processes involved in the method were known and did not employ a new reactant, and therefore did not possess an inventive step. The court also stated that the claimed technical advancement of eliminating the use of external reagents through the usage of filtrate material was obvious and did not qualify as an inventive step. [34b1a963]