Patent law

 Patent law 

Patent, is a legal document granted by the government giving an inventor the exclusive right to make, use, and sell an invention for a specified number of years. Patents are also available for significant improvements on previously invented items.

The main motto to enact patent law is to encourage inventors to contribute more in their field by awarding them exclusive rights for their inventions. In modern terms, the patent is usually referred to as the right granted to an inventor for his Invention of any new, useful, non-obvious process, machine, article of manufacture, or composition of matter. The word “patent” is referred from a Latin term “patere” which means “to lay open,” i.e. to make available for public inspection

What can be patented?

Sections 3 and 4 of the Indian Patents Act, 1970 clearly mentioned the exclusions regarding what can be patented in India. There are certain criteria which have to be fulfilled to obtain a patent in India. They are:

Patent subject:

Novelty

Inventive steps or non-clarity:

Capable of industrial application:

Patent subject:

Sections 3 and 4 of the Patents Act list non-patentable subject matter. Unless the Invention comes under any provision of Section 3 or 4, it means that it consists of a subject for a patent.

Novelty

Under Section 2(l) of the Patent Act, a novelty or new Invention is defined as “no invention or technology published in any document before the date of filing of a patent application, anywhere in the country or the world”. The complete specification, that is, the subject matter has not fallen into the public domain or is not part of state of the art”.

Inventive steps or non-clarity:

Under Section 2(ja) of the Patents Act, an inventive step is defined as “the characteristic of an invention that involves technological advancement or is of economic importance or both, as compared to existing knowledge, and invention not obvious to a person skilled in the art.”

Capable of industrial application:

Industrial applicability is defined in Section 2 (ac) of the Patents Act as “the invention is capable of being made or used in an industry”.

Rights of Patentee

Right to exploit patent: A patentee has the exclusive right to make use, exercise, sell or distribute the patented article or substance in India, or to use or exercise the method or process if the patent is for a person. This right can be exercised either by the patentee himself or by his agent or licensees. The patentee’s rights are exercisable only during the term of the patent. 

Right to grant license: The patentee has the discretion to transfer rights or grant licenses or enter into some other arrangement for a consideration. A license or an assignment must be in writing and registered with the Controller of Patents, for it to be legitimate and valid. The document assigning a patent is not admitted as evidence of title of any person to a patent unless registered and this is applicable to assignee not to the assignor. 

Right to Surrender: A patentee has the right to surrender his patent, but before accepting the offer of surrender, a notice of surrender is given to persons whose name is entered in the register as having an interest in the patent and their objections, if any, considered. The application for surrender is also published in the Official Gazette to enable interested persons to oppose. 

Right to sue for infringement: The patentee has a right to institute proceedings for infringement of the patent in a District Court having jurisdiction to try the suit.

Patent law

By- Shambhavi 

VIP-AUTHOR