Tag: Indian Patents Act

Patents are granted for inventions that are novel and involve an inventive step. Any information or material that is publicly available or published before the filing of a patent application is known as “prior art” and this forms the basis on which novelty and inventive step is determined. ......

The Indian Patent Office is responsible for administering the Indian law of patents, and its roles include patent administration, patent duration, and patent renewal, among other things. There are four patent offices in India, located in different cities, i.e., Chennai (in southern India), Delhi (in northern India), Kolkata (in eastern India), and Mumbai (in western India). In geographical terms, these four offices cover the length and breadth of the entire country. ......

From filing a patent to its eventual grant, there are various stages that a patent application goes through in India. Patent filing is the primary step an inventor must initiate to protect their invention from being misused. Before a patent is granted, the Indian Patent Office (IPO) meticulously examines it, to ensure that the innovation sought to be patented is novel and involves an inventive step based on specific criteria. ......

In patent law, there is a constant tug of war between the importance of incentivizing innovators and the need to ensure that consumers have access to innovations. The law reflects this tussle as well. But this constant striving to balance the rights between patentees and consumers is essential for the patent system to function and be meaningful to society. ......