Laws regarding patents in India: Governed by Indian Patents Act, 1970!
A patent confers monopoly rights on the inventor for a limited period of time. These rights are supposed to act as incentives for promoting development of new products.
In India, patents are governed by the Patents Act, 1970, but there have been a number of subsequent amendments. Being a party to the TRIPS agreement, India is under an obligation to keep its patent laws in conformity with the TRIPS provisions.
Criteria for Patentability:
A patent does not protect an idea but it protects the invention, which is the manifestation of the idea. Not all innovative products are ‘inventions’ within the definition of the Patents Act. The term invention is defined in the Patents Act as ‘a new product or process involving an inventive step and capable of industrial application.’ From this definition of an invention, three criteria for patentability emerge—novelty, utility, and inventive step.
Patents are not granted for inventions that are already well known to the public. For example, no one has a patent for a wheel but that does not mean that someone can apply and get a patent for that. For an invention to be patentable, it has to be new at the time of the invention by its original inventor.
The invention must be capable of industrial application, which can also mean that the invention should have the potential to be of benefit to someone.
Inventive step, also called non-obviousness, asks whether an invention is a significant technical advancement. A patent may not be awarded if the difference between the new invention and the existing alternatives is substantial.
The Indian Patent Act lists all innovations that are not classified as inventions, within the provisions of this act, and, thus, are not patentable. Some of these innovations are listed below:
i. Inventions those are frivolous or contrary to established natural laws.
ii. Inventions whose primary uses are contrary to morality or can cause harm to humans or the environment.
iii. The mere discovery of a scientific principle without manifesting it in a product.
iv. Discovery of a new use of an existing substance.
v. A new method of agriculture.
vi. A business method.
vii. A manufacturing process: Process patents were available but India has moved on to product patent regime to comply with its international commitments. Interestingly, business processes can be patented in the US.