A patent is a right given to the inventor, an exclusive right to safeguard his or her inventions from competitors. Through this safeguard the patentee has sole ownership rights over his or her invention, given the invention falls under the basic requirements mentioned under The Patents Act, 1970. The invention should be unique, technological significance etc.
The procedure to file an application for patent is available to the people both offline and online by the government. The procedure in itself is lengthy and time consuming. To make life a tad bit easier for the applicants Patent E- filing was introduced in India in 2007. Offline procedure is not only time consuming but also a complicated process with tones of copies of documents required. Online patent E- filing procedure in India has made the filing less time consuming and easier for the applicants to file from any place and at any given point of time.
The online services have decreased the chances of error and any error occurred during the filing and is checked or corrected. The applicant or the user does not have to wait he or she can get instant acknowledgment after filing the application.
STEP 1: Detail Research of Patent
First and foremost the inventor needs to do a detail research about the patent. The inventor should make sure that the invention does not fall into non patentable inventions mentioned under the Patents Act. The invention should have economical and technological significance not to forget should be unique in its own way.
STEP 2: Registration
The applicant has to go toipindiaonline.gov.in.website to register himself for the application of patent. The registration can be done by the person himself or by his agent, representative of legal entity or representative of a small entity. After the registration the person needs to give his digital signature.
STEP 3: Filling Up the Forms
The applicant then needs to fill up the forms already provided on the site. After filling up the forms and saving them required documents need to be uploaded. The drafts saved by the applicant can be accessed later as well. The drafts are saved in form history the forms can be deleted or altered by the user after submitting which is not possible offline.
STEP 4: Payments
The user needs to complete the payment process online for progressing with the application of the patent. Prescribed fees need to be made by online portal given on the website.
STEP 5: Request for examination
Form for request for examination need to be filled by the user to move forward with the grant of patent. Without the examination reports the patent cannot be granted.
The first examination report will be available to the applicant within the time period of three months.
STEP 6: Reply to Examination Report
After getting notified about the examination report the user has to reply to the said reports and objections mentioned under these reports in a given period of time. The option to reply to these examination reports have been given on the site as well. The inventor needs to prove why the invention is worthy of patent.
STEP 7: Grant of Patent
The application will be placed in queue and after verification the user will get an email about the grant of patent. The patent has a life span of 20 years.
STEP 8: Renewal of Patent
After the patent has expired the user can get the patent renewed by logging in and filling up the form for the renewal of patent. This can be done from the same user Id.
In India the process to register for patent is very hectic even though online registration has made the process easier the user requires a legal aid. Especially for the first time online applicants it is advised to have a professional help to avoid all kinds of errors and legal problems. At Company Vakil the services required for a hassle free registration is available. Our team is expert in legal matters not only relating to the patent registration but also Company Registration, Trademark. With Company Vakil on your side the whole process will be stress free and the inventors can just focus on their inventions without the stress of legal problems and acquiring patent.
Barbara Ratliff