A patent is an exclusive right granted for an invention. In other words, a patent is an exclusive right to a product or a process that generally provides a new way of doing something, or offers a new technical solution to a problem. To get a patent, technical information about the invention must be disclosed to the public in a patent application.

A patent owner has the right to decide who may – or may not – use the patented invention for the period in which the invention is protected. In other words, patent protection means that the invention cannot be commercially made, used, distributed, imported, or sold by others without the patent owner’s consent.

Patents may be granted for inventions in any field of technology. An invention can be a product – such as a chemical compound, or a process, for example – or a process for producing a specific chemical compound. Many products in fact contain a number of inventions. For example, a laptop computer can involve hundreds of inventions, working together.

The patent filing process takes 7-10 working days. The steps involved in filing a patent are patent search, patent drafting and online patent filing with the Indian patent office.

No, there is no requirement of physically going to the patent office for filing a patent. All the formalities required for filing a patent can be done online. 

No, patent rights are territorial in nature. A patent filed and granted in India will only be valid in India.

Information such as complete invention details, inventor's name and address will be required to file for a patent.

Any new product/ technology and method or improvement to the existing products or methods which is novel, inventive and have industrial application can be patented in India.

A citizen of India who is the true and first inventor of the invention can file for a patent in India.

Start-ups/ companies and individual inventors should be aware of their innovation and file for a patent as early as possible to prevent their ideas from being copied. The filing date of the patent is considered the priority date of that patent and from this date all the competitors will be restricted to file for a patent on the same idea. 

The term of a patent is the life period of a patent which is 20 years from the date of filing of the patent. In other words a patent can remain valid and alive for a period of 20 years.

In some countries, patent protection may be extended beyond 20 years or a Supplementary Protection Certificate (SPC) may be issued in very specific cases. The extension aims to compensate for the time expended on the administrative approval procedure before products can be put on the market.

While it is certainly true that not all enterprises develop patentable inventions, it is wrong to believe that patents only apply to complex physical or chemical processes and products or that they are only useful to large corporations.