India, April 20 -- The Bombay High Court has quashed orders denying a patent to US-based Huntington Alloys Corporation, holding that the authorities' conclusion that the invention was linked to atomic energy was unjustified and could not be sustained in law.

The company had moved the court against a November 2020 decision of the deputy controller of patents and a subsequent April 2021 order of the Department of Atomic Energy, both of which refused its application for the investigation of an "Ultra Supercritical Boiler Header Alloy and Method of Preparation".

At the core of the dispute was whether the invention fell within the restricted domain of atomic energy under the Patents Act. The firm maintained that its technology-an alloy devel...