Want to be first to get an invention patented? If yes, all you need to know about the filing of the application for Patent in India is described in this blog. For instance, there are two inventors working in different parts of the world on an invention which is similar. A Patent will be granted to the inventor who has got the priority over the other inventor or in other words who has filed the Patent application for the invention first. You can say that a patent is granted on first come first basis.
Thus, in order to be the first one to get a patent, you ought to be aware of the filing’s procedure and types of patent application filings in India. Let me brief you about the different types of Patent application filings and its procedure. Types of Patent Application Filings in India
A Patent Application in India can be filed by the true and first inventor, the assignee of the true and first inventor and the legal representative of any deceased person who before the death was entitled to make a patent application.
Procedure for filing a Patent application in India
A patent application can be filed with Indian Patent office with branch offices located in Delhi, Mumbai, and Chennai. The head office is in Kolkata. The applicant can file the Patent application through e-filing or in the hard copy format. The Patent Office charges an additional 10% fee on filing the application in physical mode or as hard copy. The application generally is prepared by preparing forms (Form-1, Form-2, Form-3, and Form-5) with their respective fees as per the Indian Patent Act. The Indian Patent office has revised the government fees of forms for a natural person and legal entity both. And, a separate applicant called as the “small entity” has been introduced as a third category of applicant.
There are different types of application filings in India. Generally, a provisional specification is filed by the applicant claiming priority date, followed by a complete specification, which can be filed within twelve months from filing date of the Provisional application. This gives the applicant an additional time to finalize the application. The different types of patent application filings which can be filed in India are:
PCT International Application – An application filed under PCT which is an International filing system where the applicant gets an international filing date in the designated countries and later it enters the national phase (31 months from the priority date).
Procedure of filing PCT International application – An International application can be filed with any of the Indian Patent office i.e Kolkata, Mumbai, Delhi, and Chennai as receiving office or with International Bureau of WIPO as receiving an office. The International application consists of the request form, description with one or more claims and one or more drawings (if required) and an abstract. The application should be in a language that is either ( English, Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Spanish, Russian or Arabic). The International application in triplicate with the requisite fees should be filed with the receiving office, which sends one copy of the International application to the International Bureau as “ record copy” , another copy to International Searching Authority as “search copy” and keeps one set of the application with itself as “ home copy”.
Note – ” Residents of India have to take prior permission from the Government before filing an application outside India under section 39 due to security reasons, mainly to determine if the invention relates to defense purposes. This is done by filing Form-25 with the appropriate fee to seek permission from the government or otherwise an application for the same invention has to be filed in India six weeks prior filing of it outside India.”
PCT National Phase Application – An International Application filed under the PCT designating India, enters the national phase within 31 months from the priority date of International application or filing of the International application whichever is earlier.The National phase application in India consists of the Forms prepared according to the Indian Patent Act and the same specification as filed in the International Application.
Convention – Application Types of Patent Application Filings in India- When an application is filed by an applicant in India within twelve months from the priority date claimed for the same invention filed in two or more convention countries is called convention application.
Ordinary Application – An application which does not claim any priority of an application made in a convention country or any other application is called an ordinary application.
Divisional Application – An application made any time before the grant of the Patent, which is generally filed to obviate the objection of a unity of invention in examination reports, issued by the examiners of the Indian Patent office is called Divisional application. When the claims of an invention relating to more than a single invention then, in that case, a divisional application can be filed, which has the same specification as of the parent application but the different set of claims.
Application for Patent of Addition – If there is any modification or improvement in the invention for which the applicant already has the patent or has already filed the application for a patent, then he may file a patent of addition application. Provided that the date of filing of a patent of addition application should be same or later than the filing date of the main invention. There is no separate renewal fee for Patent of Addition application unless it is made an independent application. Patent of Addition will not be granted before the granting of the patent of the main application.
