A patent is an “intellectual property right” given to the inventor for his own invention.
Internationally, it is defined by World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), a branch of United Nations and global organization for intellectual property, as an “exclusive right” given to a person for an “invention”. Here, “invention” refers to both creation of a product or a procedure which is itself new or provides a new scientific solution. The person has to make the technical information about his invention public in the patent application to get the patent. The limitation attached with the patent is that it is a “territorial right”, hence, limited to the country where the application for the patent has been filed and is not globally valid.
A patent is a “statutory right” granted by the government (sovereign body) to a person, known as patentee as defined under Section 2(p) of the Patents Act, 1970, for his invention only for a specific period and for a limited span pf time subject to the condition that the patentee has disclosed his invention to the public.
A patent is also defined under Section 2(m) of the Patents Act, 1970 as “a patent for any invention granted under this Act”. Sections 3 and 4 of the Act expressly mention about the inventions for which patent cannot be granted. Hence, it can be concluded that according to the Act all inventions are patentable under the Patents Act, 1970 except mentioned under Sections 3 and 4 of the Act.
An important characteristic of patent is that is not an “absolute right” which means there are certain exceptions to the patent like despite a product or process being patented it can be used by the government, or for research, teaching, experiments etc.The patent protects the invention of the patentee as it excludes other from “making, using, selling and importing” product or procedure of its production without the consent of patentee. Although it is important to note that a patent does not grant right to the patentee of “making, selling or using” his own patented invention if it is infringing the earlier given patent of anyone. But, being a “territorial right”, patent application filed in India will only provide protection within the Indian territory only.
International Convention Application:
There is a provision for filing a simultaneous application for a patent under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), defined under Section 2(oa) the Patents Act, 1970, which allows a person to have a patent in more than one country. The countries included under PCT are the countries which have signed the treaty. The application under PCT, known as “international application” as defined under Section 2(ia) of the Patents Act, 1970, must be filed by the patentee before the end of twelve months from the date on which application was filed in India. The other way by which a person can get an international patent is by filing individual application for his invention under the conventions of that particular country.
Renewal of a Patent:
Section 53 of the Act mentions about the “Maintenance fee or Renewal fee” which is needed to be paid by the patentee for the renewal of the patent before the end of the current year. Furthermore, in case, the time period for the payment of renewal fee ended and patent ceases to exist then the patent can be regained by submitting Form-15 and a considerable proof of the reasonable reason for the non-payment of fee on time along with the prescribed amount of fee within 18 months counted from the date of lapse. Patent renewal fee for natural persons is Rs 2400, a small entity is Rs 6000 and for other than a small entity is Rs 12000.
Since the life of a patent in India is 20 years from the date of filing the application as stated under Section 53 of the Patents Act, 1970, therefore, after that patented technical approach is released to public domain and when the fee for the renewal of patent is not paid in the given period of time then it results into the cessation of patent protection and no further protection will be provided to the “invention”.