Overview of Molecular Quantum Mechanics

 

An introduction to patent drafting        

 

The term invention explores either a process or product which at no time been existing or in other words it is the birth of a novel process or product. In the context of registration of invention, the term patent is introduced which protect the authorship of the inventor or otherwise the invention may be copied by somebody else and they are making profit out of it. So if an individual wants to secure his or her invention, then he/she must understand what is patent and how the patent law protect the invention by unauthorized usage of the product or process which originated out of the invention. This article explains how an invention is patented using the available procedure.

Field of invention

If there is invention then it should accompany a kind of technology which is referred as field of invention. In case if there is no technology involved in an invention then it is not coming under invention. In this universe technology covers a waste area and to identify a particular area of technology the background of the invention is mandatory. The background of invention reveals the field of invention and possess the narrative of prior art.

Prior art

Prior art elaborates references or documents which are used in the patent application to explore the uniqueness and non-obviousness of demanded subject content. The prior can also be called as state of the art or background art. Patent act section 2 exemplifies the prior art which states that an invention should not be foreseen as document by means of publication or should not be used in the inventor country or throughout the universe at the filing the patent application. Further either state of the art or public domain should not be the subject of concern. To get a clear idea about prior art one has to search the website of European patent office. Under patent law prior art principally looking for textual substantiation. Also it is not mandatory that prior art should physically available or commercially existing. In other words prior art is nothing but a kind of evidence.

 

Probing the prior art

If the evidence is searchable then it is eligible for the prior art and the source for searching is accomplished through website. It is possible to search the non-patentable articles through Google scholar or data base meant for non-patentable articles. Search can be done with the aid of title, abstract, complete specification, published patents, granted patents and based on the date also.  Espacenet is the name of the patent search of European patent office which contains hundred million more documents. Hence prior art search has its own significance in the following aspects

1.         Novelty requirement for the grant of patent

2.         To analyze the inventive steps

 Non-obviousness is satisfied through the analysis of inventive step.

 

Patent Classification

             The patent offices across the universe either national or international received and receiving more number of applications. Also the received applications are sent for scrutiny by the examiners or judges who are well versed in a specific technology leading for sanctioning the patent which piles up more and more. Hence it is difficult to search or look for a specific technology either product or process. In this context to classify the patents technology wise a system is required. The method used to identify a particular patent is accomplished by means of assigning coding. Worldwide the intellectual property rights is dealt with world intellectual property organization (WIPO) which introduced the IPC grouping. This organization not only provides patent classifications besides expedite data related to industrial designs, invention and trade mark. European grouping system and United States patent classification (USPC) system combined together to follow the system prescribed by co-operative patent classification (CPC). This CPC is conceived by European Union as well as USPC and maintained by both the organizations. India is following IPC classification system which contains eight sections (each section consists of different kinds of technologies) with roughly 7X10⁴ sub-divisions. 

 

Technical advance   

             Invention can also be referred as advancement in a particular technique which is called as technical advance. Further invention involves either product or process comprising of inventive step and exhibiting industrial application. Inventive step resulting technical advancement over the prevailing facts or should have economic implication and not obvious to a person skilled in the art. This is modified in the Indian patent law in the year 2005. To conclude, progress of an invention is revealed by technical advance and feature of invention is exhibited by inventive step.

 

Non-Inventions

 

            The criteria for patentability is as follows

1.                  should have requirement of novelty

2.                  should have inventive step

3.                  should have industrial application

Indian patent law Section 3 and 4 reveals the materials / process that are declared as non-inventions

 

1.         Disagreeing with natural laws (perpetual motion machine)

2.         Conflicting to public order or ethics (guillotine machine for execution)

3.         Abstract or scientific principle

4.         New characteristics or a novel use of a recognized stuff (Section 3(d))

5.         Admixture of substance 3(e)

6.         Rearrangement of known substances 3(f)

7.         Omitted 3(g)

8.         Method of agriculture 3(h)

9.         Method of treatment 3(i)

10.       Plant or animal parts (microorganisms excluded 3(j))

11.       Business method or Computer program 3(k)

12.       Copyrightable products (literary or dramatic work 3(l) 

13.       Method of playing game 3(m)

14.       Presentation of information 3(n)

15.       Topography of integrated circuits 3(o)

16.       Traditional knowledge 3(p)

17.       Atomic energy (section 4)

 

Reasons for invention

             Solving a problem may end up with invention; your hobby may leading to an invention; it may be the outcome of a research; Inventions may happen accidently. All the inventions doesn’t require patent at the same instant it is not mandatory that all the inventions to be patented. According to Indian patent law, patentability requires industrial application as well as reproducibility. Also it is purely based on cost involved for filing a patent and the benefits derived out of it. If the patent filing cost is more compared to benefit of the end product which requires patent, then it is not worthy to go for patent.