Indian Patent & Design that need to know

Patent

■ Authority: Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs & Trademarks, CGPDM, generally known as the Indian Patent Office (IPO)

■ Evolution of the Indian Patent Act:

■ Type of Applications:  

  1. Provisional Application: invention is still under experimentation stage
  2. Ordinary Application: without claiming any priority
  3. Convention Application: claiming a priority
  4. PCT International Application: Under Patent Cooperation Treaty
  5. PCT National Phase Application: national phase application in India
  6. Patent of Addition: slight modification
  7. Divisional Application: invention may divide and file two or more applications

■ Basic points in Indian Patent application:
1: Important time frame:

Term of patent protection Right of priority Average wait time Grace Period
20 years Within 12 months 5~6 years 12 months

 
2: Basic requirements & Process:

Language Hindi/ English
Documents Legal information, Technical information, Power of attorney, Verified English translation of priority document (if applicable, may be submitted within 31 months)
Criteria of patentability Novelty、inventive step、Industrial application
Early Publication Publishes within one month from the date of filing of such request
Expedited examination The First Examination Report (FER) issues within 1 – 2 months, and the application could grant much faster than the regular route.
Opposition Pre grant opposition: by anyone within 3 months from publication
Post grant Opposition: by any interested person 12 months from the date of grant
Statement of Work submit each year a statement regarding the commercial scale of use in that respective year.
PCT National Phase entry 31 months from the date of priority
Revocation Within 1 to 2 years from the grant of patent

3: Patent Prosecution:

Design

Some basic points:

  • Grace period: A six-month grace period is available in case of disclosure of the design before filing.
  • Reciprocity Application: convention country’s applied design can be filed within six months from the date of priority.
  • India follows Locarno Classification system.
  • Required documents: The priority documents, in case of a convention application; and an English translation thereof ; A power of attorney
  • Multiple embodiments of the same article in a single application is not allowed
  • Term: 10 to 15 years (The initial term is ten years which may be further extended for 5 years more)
  • Average wait time: around 6 months if all requirements are met.
  • Prosecution: