Procedure for patent registration in India
Procedure for patent registration in India
Step 1: Write down the invention (idea or concept) with as many details as possible
Collect all the information about your invention such as:
- What is my idea/invention?
- How does it work?
- What problem my innovative idea is solving
- What is the field of my invention?
- What are the advantages of my innovative idea?
- What are the elements or components of my innovative idea?
- Can I draw a block diagram or device or flowchart or sketch that explains my invention in a better way?
- What are the advantages of my invention over existing knowledge that is prior arts?
- Who are the competitors with what product or service etc…
Ideally, if you have worked on the invention during the research and development phase you should have something called a lab record duly signed with a date by you and your respective authority.
Step 2: include drawings, diagrams or sketches explaining the working of the invention
The drawings and diagrams should be designed so as to explain the working of the invention in better way with visual illustrations. They play an important role in patent application.
Step 3: check whether the invention is patentable subject matter
All inventions may not be patentable, as per the Indian patent act there are certain inventions that are not patentable explained in detail in(inventions not patentable)
Step 4: Patentability search (this is an optional step)
The next step would be finding out whether your invention meets novelty criteria as per the Indian patent act? A detailed explanation for all patentability criteria is given here (what are patentability criteria’s).
The patentability opinion is provided by the patent professionals upon conducting an extensive search and forming a patentability report. In this step, the patent agent or attorney who is working on your invention helps you in finding out whether your invention meets all patentability criteria which are :
- Novelty
- Non-obviousness
- Industrial application
The patentability search is aimed towards finding out the novelty and non-obviousness of the invention, the search identifies the closes possible prior arts (known to the public) relating to your invention, and based on the results obtained an opinion about the patentability of your invention may be provided by a patent attorney.
Based on the results found and reviewed in a patentability/novelty search report, the patentability opinion may be positive, negative or neutral. A positive patentability opinion indicates you stand a good chance to get your patent granted for your invention.
The patentability report and opinion helps you decide whether to go ahead with the patent or not, chances are what you thought as a novel might already be patented or know to the public in some form of information. Hence this report saves lots of time, effort, and cost for the inventor by helping him decide whether to go ahead with the patent filing process or not.
Costs: the professional fees for patent professionals can range from Rs. 12,000 to Rs. 15,000 for performing a patentability search
Time: the time required is about 5-7 working days
The outcome of this step:
The outcome of this patentability search report is:
- You get to know about the opinion on the patentability of an invention
- The inventive step and novel feature would be identified when our invention is compared with the closest possible prior art found in the patentability search report
- The patentability search report would give you an overall picture of the state of the art that is the current stage of the technology and you may find some white areas where you can do further research and development
- The inventive step identified via patentability search can be leveraged while writing a patent application and especially claims of patent such that our patent application stands a good chance going through the examination stage to a granted patent.
- In case the patentability opinion is negative, then it saves a lot of cost and time which would have unnecessarily invested in proceeding with patent filing process and eventually getting the application rejected.
Note: in spite of all these benefits of the patentability search, this is an optional step. You can choose to directly file the patent application without going for a patentability search.
Step 5a: Draft (write) patent application
Patent drafting/writing is a specialized job, it requires years of practice and experience with patent law to draft a good patent application. To get an idea just read some of the granted patents from your domain. Patent is a techno-legal document, technical as well as legal. Writing patent as a project report or a technical thesis (on your own ) and submitting it to patent office would be a mistake which can cause loss of opportunity to patent your invention.
There are many rules and care to be taken while drafting claims, writing detailed descriptions, writing different embodiments of the invention, describing inventive step etc…
This is one of the most important step in life cycle of a patent and a good patent application written by an experienced patent agent / attorney should survive not only through the examination phase till the grant of patent but also it should survive the commercialization phase where actual money is made by licensing or selling patent rights, where competitors should not be able to work around your patent.
Costs: the professional fees for patent attorney can range from Rs. 25,000 to Rs. 40,000 for drafting / writing patent application
Time : the time required is about 8-15 working days
The outcome of this step:
The outcome of this patent drafting stage is :
- A completed patent application that can be filed to patent office
- A patent application well written by an experienced patent agent / attorney that survives through the examination phase, till the grant of patent and commercialization phase.
Step 5b: Filing a patent application in the Patent office
when a patent is drafted and reviewed by you (the inventor), it would be filed in the government patent office and a receipt would be generated with the patent application number. there are different types of patent applications that would be filed in the patent office as briefly explained below:
Types of patent applications :
The provisional Patent application: In case you are at very early stage in the research and development for your invention, then you can go for provisional application. It gives following benefits:
- Secures filing date
- 12 months of time to file complete specification
- Low cost
After filing provisional application, you secure the filing date which is very crucial in patent world. You get 12 months of time to come up with the complete specification, up on expiry of 12 months your patent application will be abandoned. When you complete the required documents and your research work is at level where you can have prototype and experimental results to prove your inventive step you can file complete specification with patent application.
Filing the provisional specification is the optional step, if you are at the stage where you have complete information about your invention then you can directly go for complete Patent application. Patent drafting is the stage where your invention disclosure and patentability search report is used to create the patent application.
Complete patent application: if you have all the required details about your invention ready with you, you may proceed with filing complete patent application.
International patent application: PCT application
The patents are territorial in nature, so if you file patent in India, you are getting protection in India only. You cannot stop use of invention outside India then. Therefore, if you desire that your invention should be protected in multiple countries, depending on your preference of countries Different options, paths and strategies for filing patent application is to be adopted with the guidance of patent agent/attorney.
International patent application:
- Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) application
- PCT National Phase application in India
- Paris convention or convention application etc…
Step 6: Publication of the application
Up on filing the complete specification along with application for patent, the application is published after 18 months of first filing.
An early publication request can be made along with prescribed fees if you do not wish to wait till the expiry of 18 months from the date of filing for publishing your patent application. Generally the patent application is published within a month form request form early publication.
Step 7: Request for examination
The patent application is examined only after receiving request for examination that is RFE. Up on receiving this request the controller gives your patent application to a patent examiner who examines the patent application with different patentability criteria like:
- does the invention belong to Patentable subject matter ?
- doest it has Novelty ?
- does it has Non-obviousness or an Inventive step ?
- is it capable of Industrial application?
The examiner creates a first examination report of the patent application upon reviewing it for above terms. This is called FER (First examination report). Everything step taken with a patent application before grant of patent is generally called as 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 the same is reported to the patent applicant (you).
Step 8: respond to objections
Majority of patent applicants will receive some type of objections which would be mentioned in first examination report. The best thing to do it analyse the examination report with a patent attorney (patent agent) and creating a written response to the objections raised in the examination report.
This is a chance for an inventor to communicate his novelty over prior arts found in the examination report. The inventor and patent agent create and send a response to the examination that tries to prove to controller that his invention is indeed patentable and satisfies all patentability criteria’s.
Step 9: clearing all objections
If the response to objections raised in first examination report could not resolve the objections completely then a hearing (meeting in person or on video conference) can be requested. In hearing, You (the inventor) along with patent attorney can discuss with the examiner about the resolution of objections or making changes to the patent application as per the suggestion of the examiner (panel).
This communication (written or in hearing) between patent office and patent application (inventor) is to ensure that all objections raised in the patent application are resolved. (if not the patent will not be granted ) and the inventor has his fair chance to prove (argue) his point and establish novelty and inventive step over existing prior arts.
Upon finding the patent application in order of grant, it is a grant to the patent applicant as early as possible.
Step 10: Grant of patent
The application would be placed in order for grant once it is found to be meeting all patentability requirements. The grant of patent is notified in the patent journal which is published time to time.
Get Free preliminary guidance about your patent requirement from patent attorneys and agents in India
You can quickly find out how much it costs to get a patent in India by reading this guideline on patent costs.
