Patent word originates from the latin word Patere which means “to lay open” or “to make available in public domain or for public inspection“.
A patent is an exclusive or negative right given by a sovereign state to the inventors for their inventions to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, selling or importing the product or process(s) for the limited period of time.
Patent provides a temporary monopoly for the product or process to the inventor for the limited period of time in the exchange of full disclosure of the invention with enablement, the best mode and know how requirements.
Patent protection is a territorial right, means if an inventor is taking protection in a particular country, he/she cannot extend his/her rights to other jurisdictions. If inventors want to extend his/her protection in other jurisdictions then inventors must file a patent application in each country where they want to protect their inventions.
Every country has their own laws or rules regarding the patent but the basic requirements are almost same.
In India patent is governed under :
- The Patents Act, 1970
- The Patents Rule, 2003
The patented invention deals with the following requirements :
Under Section 2(1)(m) “patent” means a patent for any invention granted under this Act. The Requirement of Invention is defined under Section 2(1)(j) which says “invention” means a new product or process involving an inventive step and capable of industrial application. So, the invention must be a new product or process, and having inventive step and also capable of industrial application. The Requirement of inventive step and capable of industrial application is also defined under The Patents, Act 1970. Inventive step under Section 2(1)(ja) says “inventive step” means a feature of an invention that involves technical advance as compared to the existing knowledge or having economic significance or both and that makes the invention not obvious to the person skilled in the art. Capable of industrial application under Section 2(1)(ac) says “capable of industrial application” in relation to an invention, means that the invention is capable of being made or used in an industry. One top most or can say first requirement of patented invention is “Novelty“, novelty as such not defined under the Act but it can be refer from New invention which is defined under Section 2(1)(l) says that “new invention” means any invention or technology which has not been anticipated by publication in any document or used in the country or elsewhere in the world before the date of filing of patent application with complete specification, i.e. the subject matter has not fallen in public domain or that it does not form part of the state of the art So, for the patentable invention, a product or process must satisfy all the above three requirements i.e. Novelty, Inventive step and capable of industrial application requirements. In addition, an invention also should not fall under the non patentable subject matter given under Section 3 and Section 4 of The Patents, Act 1970.
