[greenhorn]

We had done some pretty interesting stuff and R&D in my college days for my various projects, and now I see a lot of commercial research moving in the same direction. We've always wanted to improve on it, since what we got working was more along the lines of a Proof of Concept thing.

Me + my friends want to get started on the process to register the patent/IP. How does one go about doing this. We searched the web and found someone in Trivandrum who help with the patent stuff, but we're not sure if they are good enough, or if they can be trusted.

Any recommended firms/Any pointers on going about the process in india will be helpful

[hemanthisgreat]

Greenhorn, you can contact my Bro. He works as a senior Patent Analyst at firm in Bangalore. I can give him his contact via PM, if you are interested.

[hydrashok]

greenhorn, you'll find the info you need here on the official website: IPO - Intellectual Property Office (India)

Specific steps etc are here (Patents Manual): http://ipindia.nic.in/ipr/patent/Dra...anual_2008.pdf

The procedure of patents registration must be similar to that of Trademarks (the same office handles both). I've registered a few Trademarks over the past few years. I did this without using the services of a Trademarks consultant. The Trademarks procedure is quite simple, though a bit time consuming, and needing quite a bit of follow-up. I think I got the process started for a few trademarks in 2001, and the trademarks were registered in 2008. This is apparently the normal time it takes for the procedure to be completed. I did have to visit the Trademarks Office in Chennai twice over this period to get the applications moving, and then again once in 2007 for the pre-approval hearing. I've also had to do quite a bit of correspondence to make sure things were moving. Anyway, of the 5 trademarks I'd applied for, I managed to get 4 registered, without having to grease a single palm

I had to make a follow-up on a related matter last week with Chennai (Kerala comes under the Chennai Office) and I was told that the procedure of regsitration has been decentralised somewhat, and that the regional offices (such a Chennai) can now register and issue certificates on their own (earlier the central office in Mumbai had to be involved in nearly every step of the process, thus making things time-consuming).

It might make sense in getting the job done through a competent Patents consultant, to avoid having to make frequent follow-ups yourself. But you will have to follow-up on the progress with the consultant frequently enough, so that your application does not languish. Even if you are engaging a consultant, I'd suggest that you make yourself very familiar with the registration process, to make sure that things are happening as they should be happening, and at the right time.

All the best with the endeavour!

[null]

One of my friend has a patent consultancy practice here in Bangalore. If you want info, pl. msg me. I am sure it would be helpful to get inputs from multiple points (this is what I do).

[jkdas]

Originally Posted by hydrashok

g

All the best with the endeavour!

He will need an Endeavor to move around soon they way he is growing sideways

[reignofchaos]

Its gonna be very very expensive if you wish to patent it worldwide - ~25,500-30,000 USD per annum at the very least. I know cos I have two that were filed in my name by my previous employer.

An india only patent won't do you much good. Nobody even honors and indian patent.

[vivekiny2k]

Originally Posted by reignofchaos

Its gonna be very very expensive if you wish to patent it worldwide - ~25,500-30,000 USD per annum at the very least. I know cos I have two that were filed in my name by my previous employer.

An india only patent won't do you much good. Nobody even honors and indian patent.

this must be "corporate rate" for your patent attorney

i have talked to lawyers here and they charge around 10K for everything.

I believe the patent itself costs around 3K USD. there are consultants (not lawyers) who can research and tell you the feasibility in the first place, especially to check if anybody has done similar stuff earlier (that's where my quest stopped LOL). charging anywhere between 300-600 USD.

EDIT: this is for US patent. again, if somebody copies it in china, you can't do anything. they don't even have strict IP policies as far as i know.

Fees - FY 2009 Fee Schedule

[Aiel]

Some initial steps you can take before contacting a lawyer:

You will have to check if your invention belongs to a patentable subject matter. In India, software inventions are not patentable (atleast directly), only embedded software is permitted; though there are ways to get around this. The situation in EU is also similar to India. In the US, after a recent court decision, software inventions are not permitted (though, an appeal in the Supreme Court is pending), but the situation may change. I have assumed your invention might be related to software.

IMO, I would advise you to search a few patent databases (United States Patent and Trademark Office Home Page, freepatentsonline, Patent search: free databases) to see if any similar technology or invention is present. From what I have seen in my limited experience, even though most inventors feel that there invention is unique and nobody else is doing something similar that might not always be the case.

Your invention has to be compared with the documents found during the search on the basis of three factors; novelty, non-obviousness and utility. Novelty of your invention is considered by checking if all the novel elements of your invention are present in a single document (could be a patent, patent application, publication etc). Non-obviousness is considered if all the elements of your invention can be obtained by combining multiple documents, with the documents belonging to a related field. Utility is if your invention has any applicability in the present technological conditions.

Also, another aspect to be looked at it is the countries you are interested in applying for the patent application. A point to be noted is that patents are territorial i.e. you will have patent rights only in the country you have applied in. It would be best to identify potential markets for your invention and apply for patents only in those markets. Please note that there is no such thing as a "worldwide patent", in spite of what many people say. There is a Patent Cooperation Treaty, using which you can enter multiple countries.

Please note that this is a very simplified explanation and is just the tip of the iceberg. In case of any queries, please go ahead and ask.

[greenhorn]

thanks for all the inputs. me + my friends went through the suggestions, and right now, the only feasible option is an indian patent and/or a publication in some well known journal to at least establish prior art.

If the need comes to assert our patents, I guess we'll have to see about it then and there

[himanshugoswami]

Greenhorn, feel free to PM me if you need any help. I work as an IP attorney in a software company and have been involved with filing a fair number of patents both in India and the US

[BaCkSeAtDrIVeR]

You can seek an international patent right here in India. Along with the application, you pay some extra fees, and file for "PCT" - patent cooperation treaty - patent. The actual word is different.

You can also search online for free if a similar patent exists. WOuld save plenty of ക. പൈ.

[srijit]

Greenie, have you asked at the Institute of Engineers, opposite Kanakakunnu Palace? I seem to recall a board mentioning "patents", there.

[vina]

Everyone

I have a friend who came up with a pretty cool idea; now we want to get a patent on that.

Anybody knows the procedure and costs involved if we want to do it on our own (rather than go through a lawyer)?

We would eventually want to do a foreign filing in US and Europe as well.

[VW2010]

Dont hold me for relevance but this is exactly the link a friend shared me at work for a similar question my friend had for something silly

http://www.ssrana.in/Intellectual%20...ingPatent.aspx

My friend never filed though but this gives a pretty decent list of things to do.

[tsk1979]

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