In today’s technology-driven society, intellectual property has always played an increasingly important role. Patents are a valuable asset to any organisation. As a result, an organization’s innovative strength can be measured through its patenting activities. The corporation is more demanding not only in terms of the number of patents but also in terms of the quality of patents.
A government-issued patent grants an inventor the sole authority to create, use, and market his creation. This exclusive right is granted for a brief time of 20 years from the filing date. The main goal is to protect developed inventions to spur additional advancements.[i]
The primary goal of enacting patent law is to encourage inventors to contribute more in their field by providing them with exclusive rights to their inventions. In modern parlance, a patent is a right granted to an inventor for the invention of any new, useful, non-obvious process, the machine, article of manufacture, or matter composition.
A patent is a type of property right. As a result, it can only be used in the country where it has been granted. A patent is a type of property right. As a result, it can only be used in the country where it has been granted. As a result, any legal action against infringement or infringement of patent rights is limited to that country. Each country must file a patent application to obtain patent protection in other countries.
The Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) provides a method for filing an international patent application in which a patent can be filed in a large number of countries using a single patent application. The PCT of a patent, on the other hand, is at the discretion of the individual patent office only after the application is filed.
Under the Indian patent law, a patent in India can be issued only for a new and beneficial invention. The invention must be related to a manufacturer’s machine, object, material, or method of making an article. A patent may also be sought for the development of an object or a manufacturing process.
In the case of medicine or drugs, as well as certain groups of chemicals, no patent is issued for the substance itself, even if it is novel, but the manufacturing process and the substance are patentable. The first inventor or the person who has derived title from him has the right to apply for a patent, and the right to apply for a patent is assignable.
What Is Patentable? These questions are referred to as Elements of Patents in Sections 3 and 4 of the Indian Patents Act, 1970, which expressly outline exclusions to what can be patented in India.[ii]
It should be noted right away that the answer is not set in stone. There is no comprehensive list of what can be patented. However, certain requirements must be met for an invention to be patentable. The capacity of an invention to meet the requirements determines its patentability.
Even before digging into the requirements, it is critical to comprehend the inventions and patented meaning. According to Section 2(j) of the Indian Patents Act, 1970, innovation is “a new product or technique involving an inventive step and capable of industrial application.” An invention protected by patent law is patented.[iii]
The following criteria determine what can be patented in India:
1. Patentable subject matter:
The most important factor to examine is whether the innovation corresponds to the patentable subject matter. The non-patentable subject matter is defined in Sections 3 and 4 of the Patents Act. As long as the invention does not violate any of Sections 3 or 4, it possesses patentable subject matter (subject to the satisfaction of the other criteria).
2. Novelty:
Novelty is an important criterion in determining the patentability of an invention. novelty or new invention is defined under Section 2(l) of the Patents Act as “any invention or technology which has not been anticipated by publication in any document or used in the country or elsewhere in the world before the date of filing of a patent application with complete specification, i.e., the subject matter has not fallen in the public domain or that it does not form part of the state of the art”.
Simply defined, the novelty criterion requires that innovation never be disclosed in the public domain. It must be unique, with no prior works of the same or similar nature.[iv]
3. Inventive step or Non-Obviousness:
An inventive step is defined under Section 2(a) of the Patents Act as “a feature of an invention that involves technical advance as compared to the existing knowledge or having economic significance or both and that makes the invention not obvious to a person skilled in the art”. This means that the invention must be clear to someone competent in the field to which the invention applies. It must be original and not evident to someone with similar knowledge.[v]
4. Capable of Industrial Application:
Under Section 2(ac) of the Patents Act, industrial applicability is defined as “the invention is capable of being made or used in an industry”. In practice, this means that the invention cannot exist in the abstract. It must be applied in any industry, which indicates that the innovation must have practical utility to be patentable.[vi]
These are the statutory requirements for an invention’s patentability. Aside from this, the disclosure of an enabling patent is a significant criterion for obtaining a patent. An enabling patent disclosure indicates that a patent draught specification must sufficiently disclose the invention to allow a person versed in the same field as the invention to carry out the invention without undue effort. A patent will almost certainly not be awarded if the patent specification does not mention an enabling patent.
[i] https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/how-to/how-to-go-about-patent-filing-in-india-all-you-need-to-know/articleshow/86417211.cms
[ii] Sections 3 and 4 of the Indian Patents Act, 1970
[iii] Section 2(j) of the Indian Patents Act, 1970
[iv] Section 2(l) of the Indian Patents Act, 1970
[v] Section 2(a) of the Indian Patents Act, 1970
[vi] Section 2(ac) of the Indian Patents Act, 1970
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.
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