Provisional Or Complete? Patent Application in India
- As per Section 9 of the Patents Act 1970, a patent application in India may be accompanied with a provisional or a complete specification. Patent Application in India
- The provisional specification is filed for an invention/ an inventive concept in which the work is still under progress. The provisional specification ensures that a priority date is reserved for the portion of the work already accomplished. Patent Application in India
- The complete specification outlines the invention/ the inventive concept in its entirety.
- Also, as per Section 9 of the Patents Act 1970, one or more provisional specifications may be filed for the same patent application. Patent Application in India
- However the complete specification corresponding to the one or more provisional specifications must be filed within a period of twelve months from the date of filing of the earliest provisional specification.
- However, it is not necessary that the provisional specification should always be filed before filing the complete specification. The complete specification can be filed during the filing of the patent application itself, without filing any provisional specification, if no further development is required for the invention/ inventive concept.
Forms and Fee ia
- The patent office necessitates the filing of applications by means of forms provided by the patent office. Different forms need to be filed for different services. However following forms are mandatory before the patent application can proceed for grant:
- FORM 1 (AS PER SECTION 7) : APPLICATION FOR GRANT OF PATENT
- FORM 2 (AS PER SECTION 10): PROVISIONAL/ COMPLETE SPECIFICATION
- FORM 3 (AS PER SECTION 8): STATEMENT AND UNDERTAKING UNDER SECTION 8
- FORM 5 (AS PER SECTION 10): DECLARATION AS TO INVENTORSHIP
- FORM 18 (AS PER SECTION 11B): REQUEST/ EXPRESS REQUEST FOR EXAMINATION OF APPLICATION FOR PATENT
- Form 3 need not be filed at the time of filing of the patent application accompanied by the provisional specification. However, Form 3 should be filed at the time of filing of the complete specification.
- As per Section 11B and Rules 24B and 24C, Form 18 need not be filed at the time of filing of the patent application, however it should filed within a non-extendable period of forty eight months from the date of earliest priority.
- As per Rule 24C of Patent Amendment Rules 2016, start-ups may optionally file Form 18A, instead of Form 18, for expedited examination of the patent application.
- The fee for filing of the patent application varies as per requested services, contents of the specification (provisional or complete) and status of the applicant (natural individual, start-up, small entity, other than small entity). The detailed breakup of the fee can be obtained from a fee schedule published by the patent office. (http://ipindia.nic.in/ipr/patent/patent_formsfees/Fees.pdf).
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