What is patent and laws related to them?

 

What is patent and laws related to them?

By swatee Shukla 

A patent is a governmental-issued right granted to individuals or groups that protects their original inventions from being made, used, or sold by others without their permission for a set period of time. It is a form of monopoly granted to inventors or innovators for their idea and covers the innovations and developments in various fields of technology, such as pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, computer hardware, etc. a patent is not a right to practice or use the invention but a patent provides the right to exclude others from making, using, selling, offering for sale, or importing the patented invention for the period of the patent, which is usually 20 years from the filing date. A patent is thus a limited property right that the government offers to the inventors in exchange for their agreement to share the details of their inventions with the public. There exists a patent office in every country that has patent laws, which review the patent application to decide upon the eligibility for a patent. The reason for having a patent law is to promote research and further invention by providing an incentive to the inventors in the form of a monopoly over the making, selling, or using of the product without the authorization of the patentee. There are three criteria to determine the patentability and the review of the patent application is done in the patent office by the patent examiner.

 The first such criteria are ‘novelty’. Novelty means that the subject matter should be completely new, and is not known or recorded anywhere else in the world. The second criterion to determine patentability is ‘non-obviousness’. This means that the so-called invention must not be obvious to a person skilled in an art. And the third criteria is ‘industrial application’ the invention should suitable for industrial application. A patent right is basically an economic right. The inventor or innovator is given a right of monopoly over the market for that invention. The grat and enforcement of patents are governed by national laws, and also by international treaties. These treaties are given effect in national laws. 

In India, the patents act of 1970 governs the patent laws. The patent system in India is administered under the superintendence of the controller general of patents, designs, trademarks, and geographical indications. In India, the patent is granted for a period of 20 years after which the monopoly lapses. However, there are some produces and processes that are non-patentable in India, firstly those that are not inventions actually,  like a mere discovery of a scientific principle or the formulation of an abstract theory or discovery of any living or non-living substances occurring in nature; and secondly, invention related to atomic energy.

Infringement of patents can be defined as the violation of the exclusive rights of the patentee. Determination of infringement is dependent upon the scope of exclusive rights of the patentee, that whether the infringer’s acts amount to making, using, selling, or distribution of patented produce or method and if in fact, the act amounts to an infringement. The burden of proof lies on the patent power for proving infringement.