What is Patent?

What are the uses of patent?

The Patent Act, 1970 which is enacted separating the provisions related to patent from the previous Act.  Under the Act, Section 2 (1)(m) defines ‘patent’.  It defines that Patent means a patent granted under this Act and includes for purposes of Sections 44, 49, 50, 51, 52, 54, 55, 56,57,58, 63, 65, 66, 69, 70, 78, 134, 140, 153, 154, 156 and Chapter XVI, XVII and XVIII, and a patent granted under the Indian Patents and designs Act, 1911 (Act 2 of 1911).  Patent is a exclusive privilege granted under the Act to an inventor for his/her invention by which the inventor is entitled to the exclusive right over his/her invention for a limited period of time as prescribed under Act, to make, use and vend the invention.  Patent gives the inventor a substantive rights of monopoly, which can be enforced for his own benefits either by using for himself or conveying the said privilege to others.  As stated in Ramanatha Aiyar’s Law Lexicon, Patentable subjects for which patents given are any new and useful art, machine, manufacture or composition of matter or any new and useful improvement on any art, machine , manufacture or composition of matter.  Patents are given to inventions if such invention satisfies the following conditions:

1. The invention must be new one, and to be useful for the public at large.
2.  it should contain an inventive step
3.  it should be industrially applicable.
4. And it must not be excluded from patentability under Sections 3 to 5 of Chapter II.

Read Also:

• The Patents Act, 1970
• The Patents (Amendment) Act, 2005
• The Patent (Amendment) Rules, 2016

Section 6 provides the list of persons who can apply for the patent under the Act. Section 7 explains the format for application to be filed under the Act seeking for grant of patent.  The application form should enclose the complete specification of the invention, or else the applicant must submit at any time after twelve months but within 15 months from the date of application

Uses of Patent:

1. It protects the inventor from unhealthy competition and legal protection from the infringers.
2. It provides the inventor an exclusive right on his invention, by which he can make, publish, sell the goods and he is entitled to transfer the patent to the licensee for consideration by which he grants absolute monopoly to the patentee or licensee for limited period.

Read Also:

• Who is a patent agent and is there any prescribed qualification to be a patent agent?
• What do you mean by Patent Office Journal?

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Adv. Anitha Gutti