According the Indian Patent Act, a patent in India can be filed by:

A natural person(s) and/or a start-up;

A small entity, alone or with a natural person(s) and/or a start-up;

Others alone or with natural person(s) and/or a start-up and/or small entity.

Any inventor can file Patents outside of India under the PCT route. However, we suggest you file the Indian application first and then have 31 months to decide all the countries to enter under the PCT. When filing PCT, Patwise suggest inventors to consider few important factors like the cost, relevance of your invention in the filing country and other business partnerships that could help in commercial benefits as well.

According to the Indian Patent Act, the below forms need to be filed at the time of filing the Patent application.

• Form 1 – Inventor details, Assignee details, Declaration by Inventor/assignee
• Form 2 – Patent Specification, Drawings, Abstract and Claims
• Form 3 – Update Status of all Patent application outside of India.
• Form 5 – Declaration of Inventorship by all inventors.

These forms will be prepared by Patwise, once the Patent specification is drafted and ready to be filed.

After filing of Patent application, and on the request for examination submitted by the Patent applicant, the patent is taken up for Examination. The Patent examiners is a subject matter expert in Patents and the relevant technology in which the patent is filed. The patent examiner examines the Patent for all requirements in the Indian Patent Act and drafts an examination report with the examiner’s opinion. The examiner based on evidence such as prior publication or Prior granted available resources accepts or raises objection for grant of the application. If the examiner raises any objection, the applicant is provided an opportunity to clarify the objections and request for grant of the Patent.

Patent Publication is the publication of all Patent application filed by the inventors/assignee at the 18 th Month of the application in the IP Journal which is published weekly in the Patent office website. This is a mandatory process under the Indian Patent Act. The Patent act offers every citizen in India an opportunity to know that the published application is applied for Patent by the applicant, hence if granted the innovation cannot be used by others for commercially exploiting the same. The opportunity can be used by an individual to file opposition if they have any documented evidence that the supposed application is not qualified for a Patent grant.

An inventor(s) is any and all person who have contributed substantially to the Novelty and Inventiveness of the invention as filed in the patent application. An inventor is an individual only. Unlike publication, all inventors are equally contributed to the Patent application.

An assignee is an individual or company, who has the commercial rights to the Patent application. The assignee can be all inventors, company or combination or inventor and company

All individuals who have contributed to the substantially to the Novelty and Inventiveness of the invention are inventors of the Patent. If an individual has just followed your orders and conducted the experiment or you hire an person for “Work for hire” are not inventors of the Patent. Any questions related to this please feel free to reach out to us

No! No person outside of the Patent office know about the Patent application until the day of publication of the Patent application. The Patent application is bound by the secrecy between the Patent applicant and the Patent office.

Patent applications are evaluated based on the requirements of the Indian Patent Act. The law requires that the patent be granted for any invention that is Novel, inventive, commercially marketed and does not fall under the non-patentable inventions. Apart from these all timelines and formalities have to be met during the prosecution

It is always advisable to file for a patent prior to publishing or displaying in conference or advertising. However, if the publication is less than a year, you can still file a Patent application. Feel free to contact us for Patent related consultation.

No! if the Patent office reject the patent application, no fees paid to the patent office nor the fee paid to Patwise is reimbursed. Hence it is suggested you do a Patent evaluation and search prior to investing money in the Patent procedure.

If you are an employee presently working with any organization, and your invention is associated with your working with the employee you may be binding to an NDA agreement with the IP clause. The strategy shall depend on the contents of this clause. Hence please call us to help you in this regard. If you are a student, then please reach out to your IPR cell in your institution for patent filing. If not, please reach out to us for a consultation

No! it is not mandatory to start any business. However, if there is a potential licensing opportunity and any person is interested in manufacturing the product, you should consider licensing as working of application is mandatory for all granted patents.