Patent refers to that legal right which is granted by a government to the inventor of a certain product or process, which bars others from making, selling or using that product for a certain period of time. The system of patent is given to encourage inventions which are unique of critical to humankind.
The process of filing for patent in India involves a series of steps that have to be taken by the applicant and it takes anywhere between 3 to 5 years for the entire process to be completed. All the steps involves a certain time period and in any case of failure to keep to such deadlines may result in your patent application getting rejected.
Steps to be followed for registration of patent in India
Before you set out to file your patent application, you must decide on one thing. Since this process is quite a lengthy one and involves a lot of technicalities, you must decide whether you want to do it yourself or engage a professional to file the application on your behalf. We recommend you engage a patent professional or firm which has experience in this field. But do remember, if you choose to engage someone to do the job on your behalf, you may need to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement for them to maintain confidentiality of your invention.
- Check the patentability of your invention:
Before filing patent for your invention, you must carry out a thorough research to find out whether anything similar to what you have invented have already been granted patent or not. This will help you in understanding the chances of your invention receiving patent. Through this search you can also fine tune your patent application, if anything remotely similar to your technology already exists.
- Drafting of the actual application:
Once you are sure that you would go ahead with the patent application, use the Form 1 to file your application. Each application form (Form 1) has to be mandatorily accompanied by a patent specification form (Form 2). Based on the state of your invention you can choose to file a provisional or non-provisional (complete) patent application.
Provisional patent application is filed when the invention is still in the testing phase and there is still some way to go to make it fully operational. In case of filing a provisional patent form, you would get 12 months to file a complete patent form. You can use that time period to gully test your technology and make it operational. The provisional patent application would deny others developing similar technology the right to file for patent during that time period.
- Filing the patent application:
After drafting the application you need to file it and secure a filing date. This is only for securing patent in India. In case you want to protect your invention in one or more foreign countries, you need to go for foreign filing within 12 months of your first filing date. You need to choose the countries where you want to protect your invention by choosing countries from the Paris Convention Members. Alternatively you can file for patent in foreign countries through the Patent cooperation Treaty to secure patent in 140 member countries. If you are filing for patent in India from a foreign country then the time period for doing that from the Paris Convention route is 12 months and through the Patent Cooperation Members route is 31 months.
- Publication of patent application:
Every patent request is published in the Indian patent journal after 18 months of first filing. Till then the patent is kept secret. Publication of the patent is an automatic process which does not need any doing from your end, but in case you want your patent to be published a bit earlier you need to make a specific request to the patenting authority through the Form 9.
- Examination and grant of patent:
A patent application is examined only when the applicant makes a request for it. You have to use Form 18 to make a specific request for examination (RFE) of your patent. Only after the request for examination will a patent application be queued for examination. So sooner you make the RFE the better it is.
Once the patent examiner examines the application, he/she will send a First Examination Report (FER) to the applicant stating his/her objections to the patent application. The applicant needs to respond to the FER within 6 months of the receipt of the FER. However, the applicant can request for an extension of 3 months using the Form 4.
Only after all objections are overcome, a patent to the invention is granted.