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Advocate & Intellectual Property Attorney
Trade Marks | Patents | Copyrights | Designs

Manish M. Bhagnari

B.Com. & LL.B.

Patents

 
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Application Procedure for the Grant of Patents


The first step in securing a patent is the filing of a patent application. The patent application generally contains the title of the invention, as well as an indication of its technical field; it must include the background and a description of the invention, in clear language and enough detail that an individual with an average understanding of the field could use or reproduce the invention. Such descriptions are usually accompanied by visual materials such as drawings, plans, or diagrams to better describe the invention. The application also contains various "claims", that is, information which determines the extent of protection granted by the patent.

A patent is granted by a national patent office, such as The Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs & Trade Marks (CGPDTM), which is located at Bombay, or by a regional office that does the work for a number of countries, such as the European Patent Office (EPO) and the African Intellectual Property Organization (OAPI). Under such regional systems, an applicant requests protection for the invention in one or more countries, and each country decides as to whether to offer patent protection within its borders. The WIPO-administered Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) provides for the filing of a single international patent application which has the same effect as national applications filed in the designated countries. An applicant seeking protection may file one application and request protection in as many signatory states as needed.


Procedure for International Application under the PCT


At present, no “world patents” or “international patents” exist. In general, an application for a patent must be filed, and a patent shall be granted and enforced, in each country in which you seek patent protection for your invention, in accordance with the law of that country. In some regions, a regional patent office, for example, the European Patent Office (EPO) and the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO), accepts regional patent applications, or grants patents, which have the same effect as applications filed, or patents granted, in the member States of that region.

Further, any resident or national of a Contracting State of the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) may file an international application under the PCT. A single international patent application has the same effect as national applications filed in each designated Contracting State of the PCT. However, under the PCT system, in order to obtain patent protection in the designated States, a patent shall be granted by each designated State to the claimed invention contained in the international application.

Procedural and substantive requirements for the grant of patents as well as the amount of fees required are different from one country/region to the other.



IMPORTANT POINTS ABOUT PATENTS

INVENTIONS WHICH CANNOT BE PATENTED