The patent application is an application that has to necessarily be filed through the inventor or a patent agent.
First things first. Patent Application is a technical application and is best drafted by a skilled patent drafter. Even in our team there are only a few experts who draft descriptions, and only a few experts who fulfill the legal technicalities.
That being said the proprietor is the best promoter and explainant of a patent and hence an application shoul always be filed in tandem with three experts - the proprietor, the technical expert and the legal expert.
Let us walk through the simple steps to filing an effective patent application and the best way to draft Patent Application:
A. Basics of a patent application.
Product or process to be patentable should possess the following essentials:
Novelty - The product/process should be novel, or improving upon current tech significantly
Distinctiveness - It should be distinct enough that it is not obvious to a person skilled in the industry
Utility - It should have real market applicability and should help in bettering over-all experience, whether in terms of cost, time, ease or any other.
Patentable Subject Matter - Section 3 and 4 of the Indian Patent’s Act. 1970 exclude some products or processes from being patentable. This includes plant varieties, DNA sequences, Business methods and computer programmes per se. [There is double-down method we use to make these types of products/processes patentable]
Description - This a crucial step of applying for a patent and where the expertise of the patent drafter comes in. If the description is not up to the mark, your patent could be denied at this stage itself. This includes field of inventions, functionality, benefits and prospects, accurate drawings and real world applications.
B. Who can file an application:
First or real inventor
An assignee of the inventor
A legal representative of a deceased person, who was enittiled to file such application immediately before the death of such person.
C. Applications vs Provisional Application:
Not all stages of inventive process are suitable to file a patent application. A patent professional can guide you whether you should make the application now or wait for further implementation, social proof or further invention, and as per curret ROI. This could make or break your application as a patent filed too soon would be too novel to be considered useful and too late would mean that that it has lost enough distinctiveness.
You also have the option of filing a provisional application and then filing a complete application within 12 months. This is always a good idea.
D. Publication:
Once your complete application is filed, your application will be published within 18 months. You can hasten the process by requesting an early publication with a prescribed fee, and this should fast-track your grant of patent.
E. Examination:
Examination of a published patent application needs to requested. Only then then the registry will examine your application for patentability.
The examiner then generates the First Examination Report. This is the beginning of the Patent Prosecution process.
F. Prosecution.
Once the examination report is issued, you need to reply to the report and follow the rest of the prosecution process which may include oppositions and hearings, if necessary.
G. Grant of Patent:
If the registry is satisfied, a patent is registered and granted in favour of the proprietor for 20 years, to be renewed annually.
Having filed numerous patent applications, our patent agents are experts in fields like pharma, bio tech, mechanical and more and can guide you through obtaining a successful patent. Reach out to our experts below
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