There are several benefits of the patent protection.

• Protection for your creation

• Reliability

• Legal Protection

• Unique Identity

• Trust or Goodwill

• Royalty Payments

• Popularity

For an invention to be patentable, the invention must meet certain requirements, as per the provisions provided under the Indian Patent Act, 1921.

• Novelty: It should be new concept or idea to an existing problem and shouldn’t be published before.

• Non-Obviousness: should involve an inventive step.

• Industrial Application

There are different types of patent application:

• Provisional Application

• Ordinary Application

• Divisional Application

• PCT International Application

• PCT National Phase Application

• Application for Patent Of Addition

• Convention Application

Registration of a patent has several parts to it and can be listed as:

• Prior Art search: This is a search report, done to check the novelty of the invention.

• Filing of application: There are two types of filings (i) Provisional: It is filed when the invention is in process and hasn’t been finalized yet. (ii) Complete specification: It is filed when the invention is ready with its full specifications.

• Declaration (Form 5): Declaration as to inventorship can be filed within one month of the application filing. 

• Undertaking in Form 3.

• Power of Authority.

• FER: A first examination report is  generated when an examiner examines the application which is to be replied within a period of 12 months.

• Hearing: If the examiner is not satisfied with the response of the FER, he may call a hearing.   

• Registration: If the examiner is satisfied with the response or hearing is in the applicant’s favour, then the application is accepted and it is published in the Patent Journal.

In India, the time period for the patent protection is 20 years from the date of the filing of the application. It has to be renewed every year to enjoy exclusive rights. After the period of the patent protection, it becomes a public right.