What can be Patented in India?

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What can be Patented in India?

The patent is an exclusive right given to the inventor with which he can stop any person from making, selling or using the invention for a period of time. However, not every invention is capable of being patented. For protection one should know about What can be Patent in India?. There are certain specific features that the invention shall possess for being protected under the patent.

India is a country with thousands of creative minds inventing something new every day.  Do you think everything that is invented can be patented? No, it is not possible to grant patent registration to everything that is a discovery. The patent is the kind of intellectual property right that is granted to the creations that meet the specific criteria.  In the sections 3 and 4 of the Indian Patents Act, 1970 there is a specific list of items that cannot be patented in India.  However, for the things that can be patented there is no such definitive list.     

First all let us understand what does the invention means according to the patent laws in India. The Section 2(j) of the Indian Patents Act, 1970 defines the invention as "a new product or process involving an inventive step and capable of industrial application.", such invention protected under the patent law refers to patented.

What are criteria’s to be met for patent registration?

There are broadly four criteria’s that are required to be met for getting the patent registration in India.  Before moving ahead with the patent registration process in India every applicant shall make sure to check whether his invention is capable of being registered or not. Below is the list of benchmarks’ that should be fulfilled for getting patent registration in India. 

The subject matter is patentable-

As discussed above the section 3 and 4 of the Patents Act contains the list of the non-patentable subject matter. If your invention does not fall under any of the provision of Sections 3 or 4, it means it has patentable subject matter. It is one of the most important criteria to be checked.

Novelty-

The basic purpose of the whole intellectual Property Rights is to provide protection to the unique and creative ideas.  Thus novelty is an important criterion in determining patentability of an invention.  For being novel or new the subject matter product or procedure used shall not be anticipated by publication in any document. Moreover, it should not be used in any other country or any other place in the world prior to filing the complete patent application.  To simply say the invention should never be published in the public domain.

Once you have aware about what can be patented in India, you must know the Documents required for Patent Filing or Registration in India

Non – obvious and existence of Inventive step-

In Section 2(ja) of the Patents Act 1970 the inventive step is defined as the "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 a person skilled in the art". The interpretation of this definition is that the discovery shall not be obvious for any person. Thus, for being patented the invention must be inventive.

Capable of Industrial Application-

According to the Indian patent Act it is clear that for being registered as a patent in India the invention must be capable of being made or used in an industry". That, in turn, means that the invention cannot exist in the abstract. For being patented the invention shall have some practical utility and be useful in the industrial application.

If your invention meets all the condition mentioned above you can proceed further to obtain the patent registration in India. 

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