CS Professional · December 2025 · Paper 4.3
CS Professional Intellectual Property Rights - Law and Practice December 2025: paper analysis
Our own analysis of the official paper, as of 12 October 2026. The questions and answers belong to ICSI; read them on ICSI's website.
Chapter-wise marks
Where the marks were in this paper (out of 100; internal-choice alternatives not double counted).
What each question tested
In our words, by question number. Open the official paper for the full question.
| Q | Marks | Tests | Chapter |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1(a) | 5 | Patentability of computer-related inventions: technical effect or advancement test, with decided cases | Indian Patent Law and its Developments |
| 1(b) | 5 | Court view on adoption of a deceptively similar trademark and trade name as dishonest and confusing | Trademarks |
| 1(c) | 5 | Features and uses of the Espacenet patent database | Patent Databases and Patent Information System |
| 1(d) | 5 | Bolar exemption under Section 107A and its role in generic competition and access | Patent Documentation, Examination and Infringement |
| 1(e) | 5 | Prior public use as anticipation and its statutory exceptions under the Patents Act | Indian Patent Law and its Developments |
| 2(a) | 5 | Fair and equitable benefit sharing obligations of Indian entities under the Biological Diversity Act | Biological Diversity |
| 2(b) | 5 | Homonymous geographical indications and their treatment under Section 10 of the GI Act | Geographical Indications |
| 2(c) | 5 | Importance of technology transfer for society and industry | Business Concerns in Commercializing Intellectual Property Rights |
| 2(d) | 5 | Dominant position under competition law and forms of its abuse | Business Concerns in Commercializing Intellectual Property Rights |
| 2(e) | 5 | Roles of the National Biodiversity Authority and State Biodiversity Boards in regulating access to biological resources | Biological Diversity |
| 3(a) | 5 | Trade variation versus novelty in registered designs and the court reasoning on lack of novelty | Industrial Designs |
| 3(b) | 5 | Exclusive rights of performers under copyright law | Copyrights |
| 3(c) | 5 | Essential requirements for design protection under the Designs Act, 2000 | Industrial Designs |
| 3(d) | 5 | Design piracy and the Section 19 cancellation ground available as a defence | Industrial Designs |
| 3(e) | 5 | Meaning of integrated circuit layout-design and the rationale for the 2000 Act | Layout-Designs of Integrated Circuits |
| 4(a) | 5 | Likelihood of confusion doctrine and factors courts use to compare trademarks | Trademarks |
| 4(b) | 5 | Honest concurrent use as an exception to relative grounds for refusal under Section 11 | Trademarks |
| 4(c) | 5 | Utilitarian theory of intellectual property and the risk to creators recouping expression costs | Introduction to Intellectual Property |
| 4(d) | 5 | Objectives and focus areas of the National IPR Policy, 2016 | Introduction to Intellectual Property |
| 4(e) | 5 | Essentially derived variety under the PPVFR Act and its registration procedure | Protection of Plant Varieties |
What stood out
- Four compulsory 25-mark questions, each opening with a court-based case, with no internal choice at all.
- Each case drives only one or two of its five sub-parts; the rest are independent theory questions across other IP regimes.
- Coverage is broad rather than deep: patents, trademarks, designs, copyright, GI, IC layouts, biodiversity and plant varieties all appear.
- Industrial Designs is the heaviest single chapter with three parts in Q3 on novelty, protection requirements and piracy defences.
- Patent questions emphasise practice tools and exceptions, such as computer-related invention guidelines, the Bolar exemption, prior public use and patent databases.
Practise the chapters that carried the marks
Trademarks, Industrial Designs, Indian Patent Law and its Developments: study guides and practice questions in the CS Professional format.