HOW LONG IS THE TERM OF PATENT PROTECTION?


The current Indian Patent Law is governed by provisions of Patens Act, 1970 as amended by Patents (Amendment) Act, 2005 and Patent Acts Rules, 2006. In Kolkata, the head patent office is situated with its branch offices situated at Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi. It is administered by Controller General of Patents, Design, Trademarks and Geographical Indications. The jurisdiction for filing the patent application depends upon:
i. Indian applicant(s): determined according to place of business of the applicant or where the invention originated, place of residence.
ii. Other countries applicant(s): determined by the address for service in India.

Any application is usually published after expiry of 18 months period from date of priority of application or date of filing of the application whichever is earlier. The applicant can request publication of his application prior to the normal period under a request through a prescribed form and fee. This rule of publication however does not apply if:
i. Secrecy directions are imposed (Section 35 of the Act).
ii. Application has been abandoned under Section 9(1) of the Act.
iii. The applicant has withdrawn his application three months prior to the expiry of said prescribed period of 18 months.
There is privilege that if application of patent accepted then application of invention will be granted patent from the date of acceptance of application of patent but this doesn’t include the power to initiate infringement proceeding until patent is granted. It is useful for claiming damages from the date of advertisement. Applications for patent under section 5(2) relating to agrochemicals and pharmaceuticals are given exceptions to this system and will have protection from the date of grant of patent and not from the date of publication of the invention. The request for substantive examination by other person or applicant has to be filed on prescribed form, with the prescribed fee, after the publication of patent application, but within 48 months from the date of filing the application or priority date of the application whichever is earlier. After examination request, the Controller refers the application to the examiner within 1 month from date of request of examination or date of its publication. The report submitted by examiner within one month usually but this can’t exceed 3 months limit
The term of every patent which have been granted permission under the Act is twenty years from the date of filing. The patents in force on 20th May 2003 stood extended for the term of 20 years.
The term of patent in case of International applications filed under the PCT, designating India, is twenty years from the international filing date accorded under the PCT.
Renewal fee is required to be paid annually to keep your particular patent in force. If applied within 18 months from the date of lapse then restoration of patents is possible.
Srijan

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