Any type of invention or discovery that has happened for first time, comes under Patent protection.
The procedure for granting patents, requirements placed on the patentee, and the extent of the exclusive rights vary widely between countries according to national laws and international agreements. Typically, however, a granted patent application must include one or more claims that define the invention. A patent may include many claims, each of which defines a specific property right. These claims must meet relevant patentability requirements, such as novelty, usefulness, and non-obviousness. The exclusive right granted to a patentee in most countries is the right to prevent others, or at least to try to prevent others, from commercially making, using, selling, importing, or distributing a patented invention without permission.
A Patent is a statutory right for an invention granted for a limited period of time to the patentee by the Government, in exchange of full disclosure of his invention for excluding others, from making, using, selling, importing the patented product or process for producing that product for those purposes without his consent.
What are the criteria of patentability:
An invention to become patentable subject matter must meet the following criteria:
It should be novel.
It should have inventive step or it must be non-obvious.
It should be capable of Industrial application.
It should not fall within the provisions of section 3 and 4 of the Patents Act, 1970.
Term:
The term of every patent in India is 20 years form the date of filing of patent application, irrespective of whether it is filed with provisional or complete specification. However, in case of applications filed under PCT (Patent Cooperation Treaty) the term of 20 years begins from International filing date.
After the grant of patent, every patentee has to maintain the patent by paying renewal fee every year as prescribed in the Schedule I. For first two years, there is no renewal fee. The renewal fee is payable from 3rd year onwards. In case the renewal fee is not paid the patent will be ceased.
