Sateesh’s Weblog

Several fields in the patent database use WIPO-standard two-letter codes to represent country names.
Click here to find list of country codes.

In India, a person registered to practice before Indian Patent Office is called as “Registered Patent Agent” or simply “Patent agent”. A patent agent having a law degree is generally called as Patent Attorney, although Indian Patent Law specifically does not mention the designation of “Patent Attorney”. Indian Patent Office conducts a qualifying examination for patent agent registration twice a year. Indian Patent Law mandates a science or technical degree for person(s) to appear for the qualifying examination. Other criteria for eligibility include being an Indian Citizen, and 21 years of age. There are approximately 1100 registered patent agents in India. However many of the patent agents got themselves registered without appearing for the qualifying examination before the amendment that took place in 2006. It can also be inferred that many of them who got registered before the amendment took place do not have any science or technical degree.

The terms filing date and priority date are often used interchangeably, but they are not the same. The filing date is the date when a patent application is first filed at a patent office. The priority date, sometimes called the “effective filing date”, is the date used to establish the novelty and/or obviousness of a particular invention relative to other art.

The priority date may be earlier than the actual filing date of an application. If an application claims priority to an earlier parent application, then its priority date may be the same as the parent.
There are a number of situations where a patent application may claim priority to an earlier application. These include:

* Continuation applications (including continuations, divisionals, and CIPs). A patent application may claim priority to an earlier filed parent application. When this occurs, the priority date of the new application is usually the same as the priority date of the parent application.

* Domestic applications based on foreign or international filings. If a patent application is first filed in a foreign country, or as an international (PCT) application, and then filed domestically (usually within a year the foreign or international filing), then the application that is filed domestically may claim the filing date of the application in the foreign country as its priority date.

* Patent filings based on US provisional patent applications. In the US, an applicant may file a provisional patent application, and then file a full-length application within one year. In this case, the priority date for the full-length application is the date of the provisional application filing.

In many cases, a patent application claims priority to a series of applications. For example, a continuation application may claim priority to a parent utility application, which claims priority to a US provisional application. The new application may then claim priority to the first filed application in the series, which in this case, is the provisional application.

If a patent application is an original, non-provisional patent application, not a continuation application, and not previously filed in another country, its filing date is usually the same as its priority date.

Source..

State-of-the-Art Search:

   A broadest patent search conducted for the purpose of providing a general review of a given area of technology. It is a market survey that ideally includes a broad view at everything that has been done in a given art.  State of art search is used to know what work has previously been done, what problems have been discovered and how they have been solved, who is active in the field of art and the chronological development of their work.  

Advantages:

• For making a decision of new entry into a particular field of art.
• To lay out the path to be followed to design around the current art.
• Saves a great deal of time and money.

First to File System is one system where all rights are owned by the first person who files a patent application for an invention. Most number of the countries are using this system.

First to Invent System is one  system where all rights are owned by the first inventor. This system is generally used by US Patent system.  The inventor conceives of an invention and diligently reduces the invention to practice (by filing a patent application, by practicing the invention, etc), the inventor’s date of invention will be the date of conception.

Pendency is nothing but “Prosecution time between the date of filing and date of issuance”.

Average pendency = (Total number of months for all patents issued or applications abandoned) / (Total number of applications for that period)

According to the USPTO there are mainly six types of patents namely:

Utility Patent-  Issued for the invention of a new and  useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of  matter, or a new and useful improvement thereof, it  generally permits its owner to exclude others from making, using, or selling the invention for a period of up to twenty years from the date of patent application  filing , subject to the payment of maintenance fees. Approximately 90% of the patent documents issued by the PTO in recent years have been utility patents, also referred to as “patents for invention.”

Design Patent-  Issued for a new, original, and ornamental design for an article of manufacture, it permits its owner to exclude others from making, using,  or selling the design for a period of fourteen years from the date of patent grant.  Design patents are not subject to the payment of maintenance fees

Plant Patent-  Issued for a new and distinct, invented  or discovered asexually reproduced plant including  cultivated sports, mutants, hybrids, and newly found seedlings, other than a tuber propagated plant or a  plant found in an uncultivated state, it permits its   owner to exclude others from making, using, or selling  the plant for a period of up to twenty years from the  date of patent application filing .  Plant patents  are not subject to the payment of maintenance fees.

Reissue Patent-  Issued to correct an error in an already issued utility, design, or plant patent, it does not affect the period of protection offered by the  original patent.

Defensive Publication (DEF)-  Issued instead of a  regular utility, design, or plant patent, it offers  limited protection, defensive in nature, to prevent  others from patenting an invention, design, or plant. The Defensive Publication was replaced by the Statutory Invention Registration in 1985-86.

Statutory Invention Registration (SIR)-  This document  replaced the Defensive Publication in 1985-86 and  offers similar protection.