How to patent a research paper?

Are you looking forward to filing/ publishing a patent for your research paper? If yes, you are at the right place. This blog post will be describing how researchers can patent their research ideas/ papers. In this post, we will be focusing on Indian patents.

Recently, I published an Indian patent for my research paper. Through this blog post, I will share my whole story regarding “how to get a patent for research papers“. Moreover, I will share everything you need to know before filing a patent for your research ideas or research papers.

I have researched a lot about Indian patents while publishing my own. Now, I have a lot of information/ knowledge in my mind regarding the Indian patent.

After reading this complete blog post, you will be able to file and publish patents of research papers/ research material, or research ideas. In addition to that, I will be covering the following points:

  • Types of Indian patents
  • How can you patent a research paper in India?
  • What are the patent filing/ publication fees?
  • How you can find existing patents in India?
  • What is the difference between a patent and a research paper?
  • Examples of already published/ granted Indian patents.

Types of Indian Patent

The types of applications that can be filed are:

1) Provisional Application

A provisional application is an application that can be filed if the invention is still in the experimentation stage. Filing a provisional specification provides an advantage to the inventor since it helps in establishing a ―priority date for the invention. Further, the inventor gets 12 months’ time to fully develop the invention and ascertain its market potential, and file the complete specification.

2) Ordinary Application

An application for a patent filed in the Patent Office without claiming any priority either in a convention country or without any reference to any other earlier application under process in the office. Such a type of application is known as an ordinary application.

3) Convention Application

An application for a patent filed in the Patent Office, claiming a priority date based on the same or substantially similar application filed in one or more of the convention countries is known as a convention application. In order to get convention status, an applicant should file the application in the Indian Patent Office within 12 months from the date of the first filing of a similar application in the convention country.

There are the main categories of Indian Patents. However, We also have the PCT INTERNATIONAL APPLICATION, PCT NATIONAL PHASE APPLICATION, PATENT OF ADDITION, and DIVISIONAL APPLICATION

Patent Grant process/ steps
Patent Grant process

Research Paper Patent Grant Process

Life Cycle of Indian Patent
Process of Indian Patent

1) Filing an Indian Patent for your research paper

A patent application shall be filed on Form-1 along with Provisional / Complete Specification, with the prescribed fee. The Specification may be filed either as a Provisional or as a complete Specification.

The complete specification ends with a claim or set of claims defining the scope of the invention for which the protection is claimed;

When the applicant finds that his invention has reached a stage wherein it can be disclosed on paper, but has not attained the final stage, he may prepare a disclosure of the invention in the form of a written description and submit it to Patent Office as a Provisional Specification which describes the invention.

An application accompanying a provisional specification is deemed to be abandoned if no complete specification is filed within twelve months from the date of filing of the provisional specification

Steps:

  1. Visit the official website of Indian Patent: https://ipindiaonline.gov.in/epatentfiling/goForLogin/doLogin and signup with your account details. For the signup process, you need to have an E-signature or digital signature. you can get these signatures from EMudra.
  2. After obtaining the digital signature, the user can register himself on the CGPDTM (Official website of Intellectual Property India) website by creating his user ID and password.
  3. After signing in to the Indian Patent site, Click on New Application and proceed to file.
  4. In this window, an application form will be opened where you have to enter all the required information.

The applicant will receive the filing receipt and CBR immediately after acceptance of the Application in the software, with the Patent Application number, date, and time of filing.

Documents Required for filing Patent

  1. Complete Specification
  2. Abstract Image
  3. Application for grant of patent in Form-1.
  4. Form 9 (For early publication)
  5. Drawings of the research/ invention

The complete specification document mainly includes the following parts:

  • Title of your research
  • Field of the Invention and use of Invention
  • Prior Art and problem to be solved
  • Objects of the Invention
  • Summary of the Invention
  • Detailed Description of the Invention
  • Drawings
  • Abstract
  • Claims

2) Publication of Patent Application

At the end of 18 months period from the date of filing or from the date of priority whichever is earlier, the Application is published in the Official Journal.

A request for early publication may be made in Form-9 with the prescribed fee of Rs.2,500/- for a natural person(s). Where a request under (a) above is made, the application is published within one month from the date of such request.

3) Request for Examination

An Application for a Patent will not be examined unless the applicant or any other person interested
makes a request for examination. The request is to be filed in Form 18 with the required fee.

A request for examination has to be made within forty-eight months from the date of priority of the
application or from the date of filing of the application, whichever is earlier. If no such request for examination is filed within the prescribed time limit, the application shall be treated as withdrawn by
the applicant.

4) Grant of Patent

On the grant of a patent, every patent is allotted a serial number by the electronic system. A Certificate of
The patent is generated in the prescribed format and an entry in the e-register is made simultaneously.

The date of the Patent is the date of filing of the Application.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the term of a patent in the Indian system?

The term of every patent granted is 20 years from the date of filing of the application.

Who can apply for a patent?

A patent application can be filed either by the true and first inventor or his assignee, either alone or
jointly with any other person.

Can a published paper be patented?

Any published material can be patented within 12 months of its publication.

How to check the list of patents?

Visit the official website of the IPR: https://ipindiaservices.gov.in/publicsearch to search the list of published/ granted Indian patents. Here you can search patents by Title, Application Number, Patent Number, etc.

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