History
The Act VI of 1856 on Protections of Inventions was enacted in India based on the British patent law of 1852. Under this act, some privileges were granted to inventors for a period of 14 years. Following which the Act was modified in 1859 as Act XV where exclusive rights such as making, selling, and using inventions were granted to the inventor for a period of 14 years from the date of filing the specification. Subsequently, multiple acts came into being, namely:
Patents and Designs Protection Act, 1872
Protection of Inventions Act, 1883
Inventions and Designs Act, 1888
Indian Patents and Designs Act, 1911
The Patents Act, 1970
The Act replaced the Indian Patents and Designs Act and came into force on April 20, 1972, with the publication of Patents rules in the same year. There have been three amendments to the Patents Act so far with the latest amendment in 2005.
What is a patent?
It is an exclusive right granted for an invention that can be a product or process. In general words, a patent provides a new way of doing something such as offering a new technical solution to a problem.
In order to get a patent, technical information about the invention must be disclosed to the public in a patent application. The patent owner or the patentee may give permission or license others to use the invention on mutual terms. Further, the patentee can also sell the right to the invention to someone else who now becomes the new owner.
Once the term of a patent expires, it enters the public domain, which means anyone can commercially exploit the invention without infringing the patent
What can be patented?
A patent can be granted for inventions in any field of technology, they can be anything from a simple utensil to trains that are propelled by magnetic levitation. The scope of patents seems limitless, however, to understand patentability better, one must know things that cannot be patented, they are as follows:
Laws of Nature
Articles contrary to public goods
Materials for atomic weapons
What protection do patents offer?
The patent owner, also known as the patentee has exclusive rights over their patent and they have the right to prevent others from commercially exploiting their invention. In general terms, it means that a patented invention cannot be commercially made, used, imported, or sold by others without the permission of the owner.