What kinds of patent application does Indian law use?
Indian law uses five kinds of patent application: an ordinary application, a convention application, a national-phase application under the Patent Cooperation Treaty, a divisional application, and a patent of addition. A utility patent, a design patent, and a plant patent are United States categories. They are not the classes in the Patents Act.
No. The look of an article, judged by the eye, is registered under the Designs Act. It is not a class of patent under the Patents Act.
What can be patented?
An invention is a new product or process that involves an inventive step and is capable of industrial application. A product and a process are two kinds of invention. They are not two registers. A mere discovery, a method of agriculture, and a computer program as such are among the things section 3 keeps outside a patent. How an application is filed is on the patent page.
Which applications exist?
| Application | What it is |
|---|---|
| Ordinary | The application filed in India with a provisional or a complete specification, without claiming an earlier foreign date. |
| Convention | An application that claims the date of an earlier application in a convention country, filed within the period the Act allows. |
| PCT national phase | The Indian stage of an international application. The international filing date is the date in India. |
| Divisional | A further application for an invention that was disclosed in the parent application and that the parent cannot keep as one invention. |
| Patent of addition | An improvement or modification of an invention for which a patent has already been applied for or granted. |
How long does a patent last?
The term is twenty years from the date of filing. For a PCT application that date is the international filing date. A patent of addition does not get a fresh twenty years. It expires when the main patent expires. A provisional specification holds the filing date of an ordinary application. It is not a grant, and the complete specification has to be filed within the period the Act allows.
What is not an Indian patent?
The shape or ornament of an article, judged solely by the eye, is a design. Registration of a design is on the design page. A plant variety is not patented under the Patents Act. Copyright in a drawing or a text arises under the Copyright Act and is not a patent of the invention the drawing describes.
Frequently asked questions
Four questions cover a design, a provisional specification, a patent of addition, and a plant.
Is a design patent an Indian patent?
No. The look of an article, judged by the eye, is registered under the Designs Act. It is not a class of patent under the Patents Act.
Is a provisional specification a granted patent?
No. A provisional specification starts an ordinary application and holds the date. The complete specification has to follow. A provisional filing is not itself a grant.
Does a patent of addition get its own twenty years?
No. A patent of addition runs with the main patent and expires with it. It is not a second twenty-year term.
Does India grant a plant patent?
No. A plant variety is not a patent under the Patents Act. The United States plant-patent category is not an Indian application.
Sources
A patent is granted under the Patents Act, 1970. The application is filed at the Indian Patent Office.