WHAT IS PATENT?

According to WIPO[i], A Patent is an exclusive right granted for an invention, which is a product or a process that provides, in general, a new way of doing something, or offers a new technical solution to a problem. To get a patent, technical information about the invention must be disclosed to the public in a patent application.

The motive behind the patent system is to encourage inventors to advance the state of technology by awarding them special rights to benefit from their inventions. There are three criteria for any invention to be patentable:

1. The Invention must be novel.
2. The Invention must be a non-obvious one.
3. The Invention must be useful in a bonafide manner.

WHAT IS PATENTABLE?[ii]

The Indian Patents Act, 1970 deals with the matters and exclusions regarding patentable invention in India. The following tests/criteria has to be fulfilled to get a patent in India. They are:

1. PATENT MATTER: The Invention should relate to a patent subject matter. Section 3 and 4 deals with the matter which are non-patentable.
2. INNOVATION/NOVELTY: Section 2(l) of the Patent Act defines novelty as “no invention or technology published in any document before the date of filing of a patent application, anywhere in the country or the world.” The invention must be novel and it should not fall into the public domain or is not a part of state of the art. In simple words, the invention should have never been published in the public domain. It must be newest which has no similar or prior acts.
3. INVENTIVE STEPS: Section 2(ja) of this Act, an inventive step is defined “The characteristic of an invention that involves technological advancement or is of economic importance or both, as compared to existing knowledge, and invention not obvious to a person skilled in the art.” It means that the invention should not be obvious to a person skilled in the same field where the certain invention is concerned.

PROCEDURE OF PATENT

The procedure of applying for a patent are:

1. The idea/ concept about the inventions should be written in details.
2. It must involve a diagram, drawing and sketch explains the Invention.
3. The next step is to check whether the Invention is patentable subject or not.
4. Should meet all the patent criteria as per the Indian Patent Act, 1970. (Mentioned above).
5. The next step is to file Patent Application.
6. Publication of the application after filing the complete specification along with the application for the patent, the application is published 18 months after the first filing.
7. Request for examination is the next step. The patent application is scrutinized only after receiving a request for an RFE examination. The patent examiner checks through certain patent eligibility criteria.
8. The next step is to answer the objections based on the examination report.
9. After answering the objections, the The Controller and the patent applicant is connected for ensuring that all objections raised regarding the invention or application is resolved and the inventor has a fair chance to prove his point and establish novelty and inventive steps on other existing arts. Upon receiving a patent application in order for grant, it is the first grant for a patent applicant.
10. Lastly, once all the requirements are met, the patent application shall be granted. The grant of a patent is to be notified in the Patent Journal.

SOURCES

[i] WIPO, https://wipo.int/portal/en/ (last visited Dec 5, 2021).

[ii] WIKIPEDIA, https://www.wikipedia.org/ (last visited Dec 6, 2021).

Aishwarya Says:

I have always been against Glorifying Over Work and therefore, in the year 2021, I have decided to launch this campaign “Balancing Life”and talk about this wrong practice, that we have been following since last few years. I will be talking to and interviewing around 1 lakh people in the coming 2021 and publish their interview regarding their opinion on glamourising Over Work.

If you are interested in participating in the same, do let me know.

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We also have a Facebook Group Restarter Moms for Mothers or Women who would like to rejoin their careers post a career break or women who are enterpreneurs.

We are also running a series Inspirational Women from January 2021 to March 31,2021, featuring around 1000 stories about Indian Women, who changed the world. #choosetochallenge