Introduction

When you put together ideas and objects to form something new that was non-existent before, such an act is understood as an invention. Discovery, on the opposite hand, refers to unearthing something previously ignored or unrecognized. Let’s have a look at how to safeguard inventions and discoveries.

Inventions and discoveries can pertain to products – tools and equipment, goods, materials like textiles, chemicals, etc. they will also pertain to processes like control processes, production, and manufacturing processes, and measurement methods.

As an investor or a discoverer, you’ve got the instinct to say exclusive rights to your creation/discovery and protect it from duplication. the sole thanks to protecting inventions is by applying for patents. Others will not be able to copy, sell, use, or import your idea if you have a patent. Firms can apply for patents to prevent competitors from replicating their unique offerings. In legal jargon, patent laws are a subset of property laws that grant inventors monopoly rights to their inventions.

The prime objective of patents is to encourage research, technological advancements, innovations, and industrial development. In India, the proper to grant patents is reserved with the Indian agency – the workplace of DPIIT (Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade).

However, not all inventions qualify for application.

Patentability of an invention

An invention is patentable in India if it’s the subsequent characteristics:-

• It is new and previously non-existent.
• Further, it involves innovation.
• It has industrial applications that add an amount.
• It shouldn’t conform to any of the qualifiers mentioned in Section (3) and Section (4) of the Indian Patent Act, 1970.

Types of Patent Applications

Provisional Application: 

you must fill a provisional application if your invention isn’t ready or on the verge of completion if you are doing not want to delay the priority date. In such a scenario, you wish to complete your invention within 12 months and submit a duly signed complete application.

Complete Application: 

because the name suggests, this application is for inventions that are 100% complete. an entire application should furnish full details of the invention, the most effective method to process or execute the invention, make claims if any, and a brief abstract outlining the essence of the innovation or discovery.

Convention application: 

If you file a application at the Indian Patent and Trademark Office Database and request a priority date supported the same application in an exceedingly convention country, then such an application are going to be treated as a convention application.

Patent Co-operation Treaty (PCT): 

a world application made under PCT and managed by WIPO (World holding Rights).

Patent of Addition:  

If there are slight modifications in your invention that you’ve got already filed a application, you’ll be able to fill within the patent of addition form. No separate application fees must be paid up. If the most application will terminate, the patent of addition also stands withdrawn.

Divisional applications: 

If you wish to amass patent protection for multiple inventions, then you wish to file separate forms for every invention. one in all them will treat because the parent application and both parent and divisional applications will carry the identical priority date.

Brief Procedure of Patent Filing in India

• Any individual, firm, or HUF can file for a patent in India. Only the primary inventor/inventors can file for an application individually or jointly.
• It shouldn’t be available within the property right before an application is submitted and also the scope of the invention should be clearly defined within the patent draft.
• You need to fill out altogether relevant forms to complete the appliance process. Then within 48 months from the date of filing, you wish to boost the letter of invitation for examination.
• Once the examiner submits the primary Examination Report(FER), you wish to resolve all the queries. Or objections raised by the examiner within the FER within 9 months. Failure to try to do so will cause the cancellation of your application.
• If all compliance requirements, terms, and conditions are fulfilled your patent will grant, and therefore the same will notify within the Patent and Trademark Office Database Journal.
• Patents for 20 years post which you wish to initiate the patent renewal process.

Copyright Vs Patent Vs Trademark

‘Copyrights, patents, and trademarks are all the same,’ you may have heard before. does one often feel all of them have identical significance? does one think copyrights protect inventions? the solution could be a plain ‘NO’.

Patents safeguard inventions and help commercialise technological advancements.

Copyrights could be a vest with you the instant you create original work. they’re mainly within the context of books, advertisements, music compositions, etc. Copyrights grant you the authority to change, revise, reproduce, and publicly distribute/perform your work. Trademarks, on the opposite hand, are signs, symbols, designs, phrases, words, etc. They distinguish the source of products and services from one entity to a different. Unlike patents, copyrights and trademarks don’t require registration.

Thus, you’ll protect your inventions’ ideas and innovations only with a patent. Thus, patents are very useful in gaining monopolistic rights, monetizing your research, attracting more angel investors if you’re a startup, and making a technology brand.