It is extremely important to find out the requirements for patent granting in India and whether an invention will actually earn a patent or not.If your invention is crafted with all minute details such that upon reading it an experienced person from the same field can reduce it to practice easily then it is high time for your invention to be patented. However, the scenario may not always be as stated. You can still go ahead and file a provisional specification to secure the patent filing date or the Priority Date. This application has a time limit for 12 months within which a complete specification along with patent application must be furnished. Any delay in this process will lead to the application be treated as abandoned.
Requirements for Patent Granting in India
For an invention to earn a patent, it must satisfy the following credentials:
- Patentable subject matter
- Novelty
- Non-obviousness/inventive-step
- Industrial application
Patentable Subject Matter
The invention to be patented should fall outside the realm of “non-patentable subject matter”. In India, non-patentable subject matter include, laws of nature or anything opposing them, physical phenomenon, abstract ideas, discovery of any living thing or non-living substance, method of agriculture or horticulture, new form of know substances, method of playing games, any aesthetic creations, anything that causes a serious harm to human, animal, plant life or to the environment, among others.
On passing of the above criteria, the patent office looks for novelty aspect.
Novelty
An invention is considered to be novel when it is different from all previous inventions (called “prior art“) in one or more of its constituent elements. The purpose of the novelty requirement is to prevent prior art from being patented again.
Non-obviousness/inventive-step
An invention will be accepted for Non-obviousness if it shows technological advancement with respect to the prior art. Majority of the proposed invention fail to qualify this step and hence gets rejected.
Industrial application
The next step to obtaining a patent is the invention to be industrially applicable. According to Indian Patent Act system, this industrial application means the invention can be used or made to be used in the industry. If the invention doesn’t serve any serious purpose or value it will not satisfy this tollgate.
Also Read, whether an invention is patentable in India.
