HOW TO APPLY FOR PATENTS IN INDIA : PROCEDURAL OVERVIEW

The term “patent” refers to as an intellectual property (IP) right as the legal document granted for a property right by the government to an inventor or the real owner . This grant provides the owner, the exclusive rights to the inventor of their own creation in order to prevent others from using the invention they created for commercial purposes for up to 20 years after the grant given to the inventor , they can choose that who is allowed to produce, sell or even import their invention in the countries in which they own a valid patent .

STEPS THAT ARE TAKEN IN ORDER TO PATENT YOUR WORK

Step 1:   Detailed information regarding invention

Collect all the information about the invention which tells us about :

• The Area and the field of invention

• Description of the invention what it does

• How does it work

• Advantages of the invention

This is done by signing a non-disclosure agreement. 

If the inventor have worked on the invention during research and development phase you should have something be it records or proofs which has to be duly signed with date by the inventor and the respective authority. In order to get better idea and detailed understanding of the thing which has to be patent , the drawings and diagrams are designed so as to explain the working of the invention in better way with visual illustrations. They play an important role in patent application as it also fulfils why this has to get patent .

Step 2 : check whether the invention is patentable subject matter or not

All inventions may not be patentable, as per Indian patent act there are certain inventions that are not patentable stated in the section 3 of the patent act 1970 .

Step 3: Patentability search

The next step would be finding out whether your invention meets all patentability criteria as per Indian patent act 1970 , that is, 

• Novelty

• Inventive

• Industrial application

• Enabling 

Which has to be fulfilled for further process .

Step 4: Decide that it is even patent worthy?

The patentability report and opinion helps us decide whether to go ahead with the patent or not, by looking at the patentability criteria mentioned above . Not only this report saves lots of time, but also efforts and cost of the inventor by helping him decide whether to go ahead with the patent filing process or not.

Step 5: Drafting of the patent application

If the inventor is at very early stage of the research and development for the invention, then you can go for provisional application with benefits like - 

• Secures filing date

• 12 months of time to file complete specification

• Low cost 

After filing provisional application, the filing date becomes fixed and is very important as  you get 12 months of time to come up with the complete detailed specification as the patent application will expire after those 12 months . once we are done with complete specification including documents and research , we are ready to file the patent application. Filing the provisional specification is the optional step, if the inventor is at the stage where you have complete information about your invention then you can directly go for complete specification.

Step 6: Publication of the application

The filing of the complete specification along with application for patent, the application is published after 18 months of first filing. An early publication can be made on request offering fees if you do not wish to wait till the expiry of 18 months from the date of filing for publishing your patent application.

Step 7: Request for examination

The request for the examination is sent in order to get the patent application examined by the officers and the patent examiner further examines the application with different patentability criteria points in order to see whether they are fulfilling the conditions of getting patent or not . The examiner creates a first examination report of the patent application upon reviewing it for above terms. This is called patent prosecution meaning all the things or say the procedure happening before giving grant for the patent is called patent prosecution ..

The first examination report submitted to controller by examiner generally contains prior arts (existing documents before the date of filing) which are similar to the claimed invention, and same is reported to patent applicant.

Step 8: Resolve and clear out objections

The draft which was sent for the examination done by the officers , sometimes comes with certain objections relating to the invention mentioned in the report The communication is done between patent agent and patent applicant to ensure that all objections raised in the patent application are resolved by responding to it stating that it satisfies all the conditions which are required to make the invention patent . At this point the inventor has a chance to prove his point and establish novelty and inventive step over existing art found during the assessment . If all the things are well solved and cleared then the patent application is almost ready for the grant of being a patent . 

Step 9: Grant of patent

The application would be placed in order to get a grant once it is found to be meeting all patentability requirements. The grant of patent is notified in the patent journal which gets published from time to time.

The renewal of the patent can be done after the time duration of 20 years has been completed by giving a small fee for the renewal in order to save the invention from theft, commercial use etc.

Written By: Mr. Dhruv Kapoor, 4th Year , BBA.LLB, Fairfield Institute of Management.