Patents...

            

    Importance of Patents for the SMEs in India...

According to oxford dictionary, A government authority or license conferring a right or title for a set period, especially the sole right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention. If you have an invention or an idea that you want tied to your name legally so nobody can use or claim its ownership, well you got to do it the legal way and have it patented. So even if it’s an idea, do not hesitate and get immediately go for a patent registration for it. Ideas are a dime a dozen and some great ideas are not only thought of by one person. Sometimes there are two or three persons who thought of the same idea. A patent is legal and it binds your ideas and your inventions to your name. So if ever somebody copies your idea without your permission, you can sue that person and you can use the patent as proof of ownership.

Patent information is particularly useful to small & medium Enterprises. Patent information is useful for SMEs for a number of reasons. Probably the most important one is that patents are the only source of technical information which SMEs may find of great value for their business planning. Most inventions are disclosed to the public for the first time when the patent is published. Thus, patents provide a means of learning about current technology, research and innovations often long before new products appear on the market.

The term of every patent in India is twenty years from the date of filing the patent application, irrespective of whether it is filed with provisional or complete specification. It is important to note that a patentee has to renew the patent every year by paying the renewal fee, which can be paid every year or in lump sum. A request for restoration of patent can be filed within eighteen months from the date of cessation of patent along with the prescribed fee. After the receipt of the request, the matter is notified in the official journal for further processing of the request. If the grant of the patent is for a product, then the patentee has a right to prevent others from making, using, offering for sale, selling or importing the patented product in India. If the patent is for a process, then the patentee has the right to prevent others from using the process, using the product directly obtained by the process, offering for sale, selling or importing the product in India directly obtained by the process.

Before filing an application for grant of patent in India, it is important to note "What is not Patentable in India?" Following i.e. an invention which is (a) frivolous, (b) obvious, (c) contrary to well established natural laws, (d) contrary to law, (e) morality, (f) injurious to public health, (g) a mere discovery of a scientific principle, (h) the formulation of an abstract theory, (i) a mere discovery of any new property or new use for a known substance or process, machine or apparatus, (j) a substance obtained by a mere admixture resulting only in the aggregation of the properties of the components thereof or a process for producing such substance, (k) a mere arrangement or rearrangement or duplication of known devices, (l) a method of agriculture or horticulture and (m) inventions relating to atomic energy, are not patent able in India.

All patent applications are kept secret up to eighteen months from the date of filing or priority date, whichever is earlier, and thereafter they are published in the Official Journal of the Patent Office published every week. Patent infringement proceedings can only be initiated after grant of patent in India but may include a claim retrospectively from the date of publication of the application for grant of the patent. Infringement of a patent consists of the unauthorized making, importing, using, offering for sale or selling any patented invention within the India. Under the (Indian) Patents Act, 1970 only a civil action can be initiated in a Court of Law. Further, a suit for infringement can be defended on various grounds including the grounds on which a patent cannot be granted in India and based on such defense, revocation of Patent can also be claimed.

                                                                                            

                                                                                       -SWATI PATEL

                                                                                         BBA.LLB(H)