How to obtain patent in India

Patent in India is granted by Indian Patent Office, Ministry of Commerce, and Government of India. It is located at four locations in India –

Delhi
Mumbai
Chennai

Territorial jurisdiction of a patent office is decided according to:

1. Place of residence, domicile or business of the applicant (first mentioned applicant in the case of joint applicants).
2. Place from where the invention actually originated.
3. Address for service in India given by the applicant, when the Applicant has no place of business or domicile in India (Foreign applicants).

Territorial jurisdictions are given below:

Who can file?

An application for patent in India can be filed by any single person or jointly with other person:

True and first inventor of new product or process. It does not include first importer of the invention or first person to whom invention was communicated from outside India. For example if Mr. Ronald communicated his invention for new assembly line to Mr. Raman in India, so Mr. Raman is not true and first inventor and hence not eligible to file patent in India. On the other hand if Miss Supriya invented technology of 6G, she would become true and first inventor.

While filing out application form, inventor has to describe his full name, address and nationality using FORM 1.

Assignee can be person or private or public company or research organization or educational institute. All rights are vested with assignee. Let’s understand with the help of example.

Mr. Prateek is working in TATA Motors. He invented new wheel design in research facility of TATA Motors. So inventor is Mr. Prateek and TATA Motors is the assignee.

When inventor is not the applicant, then assignee has to deposit proof of right or assignment deed.

Legal Representative of inventor or assignee can file patent.

Legal Representative have to file proof of right while filing patent.

Patenting  Criteria

Patent is granted on new inventions provided follow criteria of patenting are met:

Criteria #1: Novelty

Criteria #2: Inventive Step

Criteria #3: Industrial Application

Novelty means new. New means it should not be known anywhere in the world in any format. Any format includes in form of published books, newspapers reports or research papers or even use of invention.

Inventive Step means invention should be technically advance or economically significant as compare to existing technology or prior art. Step should be like it is non-obvious to the person skilled in art.

Technically advancement means product or machine has improved in working as compare to previous product or machine.

Economically significant means with new improvement technology is now more economically viable.

For example: In the following reaction:

A+B ——-> C

When we added catalyst X to the above reaction, forward rate of reaction doubles. Thus with adding of catalyst X, we were able to obtain more amount of C. This constitutes an inventive step.

Industrial Application – Invention should be capable of being used or made in the industry. We should be able to produce the product in the industry.

For example if Person P invented a vaccine for humans for disease happening in pigs, though it might be novel and inventive step but will lack any industrial application.

Non-Patentable Inventions

Sections 3 and 4 of the Patent act 1970 provide list of inventions which are not considered patentable in India.

Inventions which are contrary to well established natural laws. For example – Perpetual Motion Machine giving output without any input is contrary to natural laws.

An invention with intended use to harm public, human, plant or animal life. For example bio-weapons are novel inventions but are non-patentable inventions.

Scientific principle or formulation of abstract theories are not patentable. For example principle of gravity is not patentable but design of dam to produce electric power utilizing the power of gravity is not patentable.

New form of known substance or new use of known substance or new property of known substance are all non-patentable inventions. For example as per this law, salts, esters, ethers or complexes of same substance are mere derivatives and are not new substances.

Substances obtained by mere admixture resulting in aggregation of the properties of the components are not patentable. For example consider a medicine P whose 5 mg tablet treats fever but has side effect that it causes drying out of mouth. Another medicine Q treats headache but causes lots of laziness in patient. Now, if two drugs are combined in the prescribed therapeutic dosage quantities i.e. 5 mg of each tablet to treat fever and headache while side effects remain same, then such invention is non-patentable because they retain their qualities and do not produce any synergistic effect. On the contrary, if two drugs are engineered together giving synergistic effect and reducing side-effect, it will be patentable invention.

Mere arrangement or re-arrangement or duplication of known devices each functioning independently of one another in known way are not patentable.

Procedure

Cost of Patent

For individual inventor e-filing cost is 5600 INR. Breakdown of the cost is as follows-

Form 1 – 1600 INR (Application for patent)

Form 18 – 4000 INR (Request for examination)

Extra cost might incur in following cases –

1. If individual applies for early publication

2. If there is any kind of opposition

These the simple 9 steps which can help anybody in India obtain patent.