1. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS
Dr. Basavaraj K. Nanjwade M. Pharm., Ph.D
Department of Pharmaceutics
KLE University College of Pharmacy
BELGAUM-590010, Karnataka, INDIA
2. CONTENTS
• Types of IP
• Definition
• Scope
• Objective of Patents
• Contents of Patent
• Claims and types of claims
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3. CONTENTS
• Key terminology used in Patents
- Application
- Examiner
- Prior art
- Priority
- Specifications
- Provisional and non-provisional applications
- Claims
- Applicant
- Assignee
- Inventor
- Anticipation
- Obviousness
- Infringement and Invalidation
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4. Types of Intellectual Property
• Copyright
• Related Rights
• Trademarks
• Geographical Indications
• Industrial Designs
• Patents
• New Plant Varieties
• Unfair Competition
• Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights
• Emerging Issues in Intellectual Property
1. Biotechnology
2. Traditional Knowledge
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5. Copyright
• What is copyright?
Copyright aims at providing protection to
authors ( writers, artists, music composers,
etc) on their creations. Such creations are
usually designated as ‘works”.
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6. Related Rights
• What are related rights?
Related rights provide protection to the following persons or
organizations:
- Performers (actors, musicians, singers, dancers, or generally
people who perform), in their performances
- Producers of sound recordings (for example, cassette
recordings and compact discs) in their recordings and
- Broadcasting organizations, in their radio and television
programs.
Sometimes, these rights are also referred to as neighboring rights.
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7. Trademarks
• What is a trademark?
A trademark is a sign that is used to identify
certain goods and services as those produced
or provided by a specific person or
enterprises.
E.g. “DELL” is trademark that identifies goods (computers and
computer related objects).
E.g. “CITY BANK” is a trademark that relates to services
(banking and financial services).
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8. Geographical Indications
• What is a geographical indication?
A geographical indication is a sign used on goods and stating
that a given product originates is a given geographical area and
possesses qualities or reputation due to that place of origin.
Geographical indications may be used for a variety of
products, such as agricultural products.
e.g. i. Cheese- “Roquefort” produced in this region of France.
ii. Olive oil- “Tuscany” for olive oil produced in specific region in Italy.
iii. Tea- “Darjeeling” which is grown in India.
iv. Wines and Spirits- “Scotch Whisky” which originates in Scotland.
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9. Industrial Designs
• What is an industrial design?
An industrial design is the ornamental or aesthetic aspect of an
article. The design may consist of three-dimensional features,
such as the shape of an article, or two-dimensional features,
such as patterns, lines or color.
Industrial designs are applied to a wide variety of products of
industry and handicrafts such as technical and medical
instruments, watches, jewelry, house ware, electrical
appliances, vehicles, architectural structures, textile designs
and other luxury items.
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10. Industrial Designs
• To be protected under most national laws, an
industrial design must appeal to the eye. This
means that an industrial design is primarily of
an aesthetic nature, and does not protect any
technical features of the article to which it is
applied.
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11. Patents
• What is a patent
A patent is an exclusive right granted in respect
of an invention, which may be a product or a
process, that provides a new and inventive way of
doing something or offers a new and inventive
technical solution to a problem.
Examples:
Electric lighting- patents held by Edison and Swan
Plastic- patents held by Baekeland
Ballpoint pens- patents held by Biro
Microprocessors- patents held by Intel.
Telephones-patents held by Bell
CDS-patents held by Russell.
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12. New Plant varieties
• Why protect new varieties of plants?
– Providing an effective system of plant variety
protection has the aim of encouraging the
development of new varieties of plants, for the
benefit of society.
– The breeding of new varieties of plants requires
substantial amounts of investment (skill labor, money,
time, etc.).
– Providing exclusive rights to breeders is an incentive
to the development of new plant varieties for
agriculture, horticulture and forestry
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13. Unfair Competition
• What is unfair competition?
Unfair competition is generally understood as any act
of competition that is contrary to honest practices in
industrial or commercial matters.
A dishonest practices is not something that can be
defined with precision.
The standard of fairness or honesty may change from
country to country, as well as evolve with time. It is,
therefore, difficult to attempt to encompass all existing acts
of unfair competition in one definition.
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14. Enforcement of Intellectual Property
Rights
• Infringement of intellectual property rights
A publisher may own copyright in a book, which
has been reproduced and sold without his or her
consent, at a cut price.
A sound producer, who has invested large amounts
of money, in terms of talent and technical skill, in
producing a records, sees that copies of it are sold on
the market, at cheap prices, without his authorization.
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15. Enforcement of Intellectual Property
Rights
Someone else’s trade mark may have been used by
a company on similar or identical goods of lesser
quality, harming thus the reputation of the legitimate
owner, and inflicting on him or her serious financial
loss, let alone exposing customer’s health to danger.
Somebody may be using the geographical
denomination of “Roquefort” on cheese manufactured
elsewhere than in the region of Roquefort in France,
thus deceiving the consumers as well as taking away
business from legitimate producers.
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16. Enforcement of Intellectual Property
Rights
In all such cases intellectual property rights
(i.e. copyright, related rights, trademarks,
geographical indications) have been infringed.
It is important that in such cases enforcement
mechanisms be called into play to protect not
only the legitimate interests of the rights of
the owners, but also of the public.
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17. Emerging Issues in Intellectual
Property
Intellectual property plays an important
role in an increasingly broad range of areas,
ranging from the internet to health care, to
nearly all aspects of science and technology,
literature and the arts.
The following two topics, Biotechnology
and Traditional Knowledge, are now being
discussed at length at the international arena.
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18. Biotechnology
• What is Biotechnology?
Biotechnology is a field of technology of growing
importance in which inventions may have a significant
effect on our future, particularly in medicine, food,
agriculture, energy and protection of the environment.
The science of biotechnology concerns living
organisms, such as plants, animals, seeds and
microorganisms, as well as biological material, such as
enzymes, proteins and plasmids (which are used in
“genetic engineering”)
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19. Traditional Knowledge
• Traditional knowledge-used here broadly to refer
to tradition-based innovations and creations
resulting from intellectual activity in the
industrial, scientific, literary or artistic fields-had
been largely over-looked in the IP community
until quite recently.
• It is now increasingly recognized that the
economic value of traditional knowledge assets
could be further enhanced by the use of IP.
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20. What is Meant by Intellectual
Property?
• Intellectual property is a right you have on your
creations, like a film, a musical composition, an
invention, a brand name, etc.
• If you have an intellectual property (IP) over any
of your work or ideas, others need to take your
permission before using it.
• Otherwise you can initiate legal action against
such persons.
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21. What is Meant by Intellectual Property?
• Intellectual property refers to the right over the intellectual work and
not the work itself. The work can be either artistic or commercial.
• The artistic works come under the category of copyright laws, while
the commercial ones, also known as industrial properties, are ruled
by copyrights, trademarks, industrial design rights and trade secrets.
• Copyright laws deal with the intellectual property of creative works
like books, music, software, painting, etc.
• Industrial properties cover those created and used for industrial or
commercial purposes.
• As stated earlier, intellectual property is categorized into various
types as per the nature of work.
• The most common types of intellectual property are copyrights,
trademarks, patents, industrial design rights and trade secrets.
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22. What is Intellectual Property
The history of the human race is a history of the
application of imagination, or innovation and
creativity, to an existing base of knowledge in order
to solve problems or express thoughts.
Penicillin, plant medicines and cures in Southern
Africa, the transistor, semiconductor
nanotechnology, recombinant DNA drugs, and
countless other discoveries and innovations, it has
been the imagination of the world’s creators that
has enabled humanity to advance to today’s levels
of technological progress.
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23. Definition
Intellectual property ... a category of
intangible rights protecting commercially
valuable products of the human intellect.
The category comprises primarily
trademark, copyright, and patent rights, but
also includes trade-secret rights, publicity
rights, moral rights, and rights against unfair
competition.
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24. Scope
1.The pharmaceutical industry has relied to a considerable
degree on contracting and outsourcing, especially upstream in
R&D through various licensing arrangements and down
stream through co-marketing agreements. This is referred to as
the cluster approach.
2. Expanded sharing information including creation / use of
collaborative knowledge network (CNK), can greatly enhance
the company performance.
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25. Scope
3.More web-based approaches will provide the foundation for
these systems.
4.The greatest positive impact of IT is likely to be in R&D
Where systems can contribute to faster approval and market
introduction of products.
5.To attain leading position in branded products, they must
emulate their global counterparts in initiating strategic alliance
with smaller biotech company, which are expected to key
future source of innovation.
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26. Scope
6. Focusing on physician as key decision-makers has
long been a priority of the pharmaceutical industry ;
physician will continue to be the most important
gatekeeper to the market. ? The patient direct
consumer of pharmaceutical can do this better
collection and analysis of consumer data related to
products both currently marketed and in
development. Additional advantage to identify patient
populations for clinical trials, facilitating the
expansion of research efforts related to personalized
medicines and contributing to overall R&D
productivity.
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27. Patents
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• Patents for:
– The drug substance itself:
• Chemical composition of the API
– Method of use:
• Use of the drug to treat a particular condition
– The formulation:
• The physical form of a drug and method of administration
– The process of making it:
• Manufacturing methods
28. Objective of Patent
a) To protect the rights of the University, its
innovators, inventors, research sponsors and the
public;
b) To eliminate the infringement, improper
exploitation and abuse of the University's
intellectual assets belonging to the University or
the other persons;
c) To optimize the environment and incentives for
research and for the creation of new knowledge;
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29. Objective of Patent
d) To promote linkages with industry and stimulate
research through developing and utilizing novel
technologies and creative works for
commercialization and plough back resources the
University and to the interested parties;
e) To promote creativity and innovation; and
f) To ensure fair and equitable distribution of all
benefits accruing from all innovations and
inventions.
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30. Types of Patents
Patents come in all shapes and sizes.
The three basic types are
1. Utility (useful devices and processes),
2. Design (appearance of a useful device), and
3. Plant Patents (man-made plant varieties).
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31. Contents of Patent
• Normally it should contain the following matter
1. Title of invention
2. Field of invention
3. Background of invention with regard to the drawback associated
with known art,
4. Object of invention,
5. Statement of invention
6. A. summary of invention
7. A brief description of the accompanying drawing
8. Detailed description of the invention with reference to
drawing/examples
9. Claim(s)
10. Abstrct
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32. Claims of Patents
What is claimed is:
A pharmaceutical formulation comprising: a
substantially clear solution in a soft gelatin
capsule, wherein the solution comprises:…….
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33. Claims of Patents
• An orally administrable pharmaceutical
composition according to any of the preceding
claims m through to n, the composition devised
into an improved drug delivery device
comprising a soft gelatin capsule having …
• An orally administrable soft gelatin capsule as
substantially herein described with reference to
the description and the examples.
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34. Types of Claims
• This is a list of special types of claims that
may be found in a patent or patent
application. For explanations about
independent and dependent claims and about
the different categories of claims, i.e. product
or apparatus claims (claims referring to a
physical entity), and process, method or use
claims (claims referring to an activity), see
Claim (patent), section "Basic types and
categories".
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35. Types of Claims
1. Jepson
2. Markush
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36. Jepson
• Jepson claim is a method or product claim where one
or more limitations are specifically identified as a point
of novelty, distinguishable over at least the contents of
the preamble.
• Jepson claim can be useful in calling the examiner's
attention to a point of novelty of an invention without
requiring the applicant to present arguments and
possibly amendments to communicate the point of
novelty to the Examiner.
• On the other hand, the claim style plainly and broadly
admits that that subject matter described in the
preamble is prior art.
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37. Markush
• Mainly used in chemistry, but not only, a Markush
claim or structure is a claim with multiple
"functionally equivalent" chemical entities
allowed in one or more parts of the compound.
• No patent databases generate all possible
permutations and index them separately. Patent
searchers have the problem, when searching for
specific chemicals in patents, of trying to find all
patents with Markush structures that would
include their chemicals, even though these
patents' indexing would not include the suitable
specific compounds.
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38. Types of Claims
• There are many different types of claims of a patent
application. Some patent claims are about the type of
invention. There are apparatus claims, method or
process claims, claims to designs, chemical
composition, and so on.
• There are also ones which are related to the scope of a
patent. Generally speaking, broad patent claims are
more valuable and marketable than narrow ones.
• Broad patent claims are similar to a fishing net. The
bigger the net, the more fish on your plate.
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39. Types of Claims
• In patent terms, a broad claim will give you a larger
monopoly and potentially more opportunities for
licensing.
• Narrow claims are ones with less scope. These ones are
more difficult to infringe, and are typically less
valuable.
• The narrowest ones are called "picture claims”
• There are also independents and dependents.
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40. Types of Claims
• In other words, you can pretend that there is no
period between the independent claim and the
dependents because the dependents is conflated
in scope with the independent claim.
• It should be noted that if the independent is
infringed, you do not need to worry about the
dependent claims. However, if there is no
infringement on the independent claim, but there
is infringement on the dependent claim, there is
still infringement.
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41. Key terminology used in Patents
1. Application
2. Examiner
3. Prior art
4. Priority
5. Specifications
6. Provisional and Non-provisional applications
7. Claims
8. Applicant
9. Assignee
10. Inventor
11. Anticipation
12. Obviousness
13. Infringement and Invalidation
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42. 1. Application
Types of Patent Applications
a. Ordinary Application
b. Application for Patent of Addition (granted for Improvement or
Modification of the already patented invention, for an unexpired
term of the main patent)
c. Divisional Application (in case of plurality of inventions disclosed
in the main application)
d. Convention application, claiming priority date on the basis of filing
in Conventional Country
e. National Phase Application under PCT
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43. 2. Examiner
• Patent examiners review patent applications to determine
whether the claimed invention should be granted a patent.
The work of a patent examiner usually includes searching
patents and scientific literature databases for prior art, and
examining patent applications substantively by examining
whether the claimed invention meets the patentability
requirements such as novelty, "inventive step" or "non-
obviousness", "industrial application" (or "utility") and
sufficiency of disclosure.
• In most countries, Examiners are high level employees with
clerical staff working under their supervision in supporting
roles. For example, in the Indian Patent Office, an entry
level Examiner is a Group A gazetted officer. This is the
highest post in the set-up of the Indian Government.
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44. 3. Prior art
• The definition of “prior art” differs from country to
country. In many countries, any invention made
available to the public anywhere in the world in written
form, by oral communication, by display or through use
constitutes the prior art.
• Thus, in principle, the publication of the invention in a
scientific journal, its presentation in a conference, its
use in commerce or its display in a company’s
catalogue would all constitute acts that could destroy
the novelty of the invention and render it not
patentable.
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45. 3. Prior art
• The disclosure of an invention so that it becomes part of
the prior art may take place in three ways, namely:
* by a description of the invention in a published writing or
publication in other form;
* by a description of the invention in spoken words uttered
in public, such a disclosure being called an oral disclosure;
* by the use of the invention in public, or by putting the
public in a position that enables any member of the public
to use it, such a disclosure being a “disclosure by use.”
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46. 4. Priority
• Patent priority relates to the issue of who is entitled to a patent
when two different inventors create the same invention and
seek patents on those inventions. For example, suppose that
Inventor A invents a Gadget in 1990 and files a patent
application in 1992. Meanwhile, Inventor B invents the same
Gadget in 1991 (after Inventor A invented his) but files his
patent application that same year, in 1991 (before Inventor A
filed his patent application).
• So Inventor A invented the Gadget first, but Inventor B filed
his patent application first. The issue of who gets the patent is
the issue of “patent priority.” In the United States, the issue of
patent priority is determined by the so-called “first to invent”
rule.
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48. Provisional Specification
• Describes essential features of the Invention
• Does not require claims and abstract
• Secure the Prior right
• Liberty to develop the Invention
• Get time for testing commercial possibility of the
Invention.
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49. Complete Specification
• Is filed within 12 months from the date of the
provisional application
• Include improvement associated with the subject
matter of the provisional application
• Subject to examination
• Subject to acceptance & grant
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50. 5. Specifications
Provisional Specification
• Application for patent may be accompanied by the provisional
specification.
• It should contain the description of invention with drawing, if
required.
• It is not necessary to include Claim.
• However, the complete specification should be fairly based on the
matter disclosed in the provisional specification and should be filed
within 12 months.
• If the complete specification is not filed within 12 months the
application is deemed to have been abandoned.
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51. 5. Specifications
Complete Specification
• The complete specification is an essential document in the
filing of patent application along with the drawing to be
attached according to the necessity.
• Complete specification shall full describe the invention with
reference to drawing, if required, disclosing the best
method known to the applicant and end with Claim/Claims
defining the scope of protection sought.
• The specification must be written in such a manner that
person of ordinary skill in the relevant field, to which the
invention pertains, can understand the invention
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52. 5. Specifications
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION
• SHOULD CONTAIN THE DESCRIPTION OF THE
ESSENTIAL FEATURES OF THE INVENTION
• NO NEED TO INCLUDE CLAIMS
&
• DETAILS OF THE MANNER OF PERFORMING
INVENTION
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53. 5. Specifications
ADVANTAGES OF PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION
• PRIORITY FOR INVENTION
• NO RISK OF LOOSING PRIORITY FOR FURTHER
DEVELOPMENT.
• DISCLOSE TO INTERESTED PERSON TO OBTAIN
FINANCIAL SUPPORT
• AVOID INCURRING FURTHER EXPENSES
IF NO COMMERCIAL POSSIBILITY.
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54. 5. Specifications
• COMPLETE SPECIFICATION
• Complete Specification is a techno-legal
document, which fully and particularly
describes the invention and the best method
of performing it.
• Complete specification may be followed by
• Drawings (if any).
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55. 5. Specifications
Contents of Complete/Provisional Specification [Form-
2] (S.10)
a) Title
b) Field of the invention.
c) State of the art in the field
d) Object of the invention (Problem & Solution)
e) Statement of invention
f) Detailed description of the invention with reference to the drawings.
g) Scope and/or ambit of the invention
h) Claims
i) Figs and Examples
j) Abstract
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56. 6. Provisional and Non-provisional
applications
Provisional Patent Application
• Since June 8, 1995, the USPTO has offered inventors
the option of filing a provisional application.
• Claims and oath or declaration are NOT required for a
provisional application.
• Provisional application provides the means to establish
an early effective filing date in a patent application and
permits the term "Patent Pending" to be applied in
connection with the invention.
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57. 6. Provisional and Non-provisional
applications
• Provisional applications may not be filed for design
inventions.
• The filing date of a provisional application is the date
on which a written description of the invention,
drawings if necessary, and the name of the inventor(s)
are received in the USPTO.
• To be complete, a provisional application must also
include the filing fee, and a cover sheet specifying that
the application is a provisional application for patent.
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58. 6. Provisional and Non-provisional
applications
• The applicant would then have up to 12 months to file a
non-provisional application for patent as described above.
• The claimed subject matter in the later filed non-
provisional application is entitled to the benefit of the filing
date of the provisional application if it has support in the
provisional application.
• The 12 month pendency for a provisional application is not
counted toward the 20 year term of a patent granted on a
subsequently filed non-provisional application which relies
on the filing date of the provisional application
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59. 6. Provisional and Non-provisional
applications
Non-Provisional Patent Application
• A non-provisional application for a patent is made to the Assistant
Commissioner for Patents and includes:
• A written document which comprises a specification (description
and claims), and an oath or declaration;
• A drawing in those cases in which a drawing is necessary; and The
filing fee.
• All application papers must be in the English language or a
translation into the English language will be required along with the
required fee.
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60. 6. Provisional and Non-provisional
applications
• The application for patent is not forwarded for examination until all
required parts, complying with the rules related thereto, are
received.
• If any application is filed without all the required parts for obtaining
a filing date (incomplete or defective), the applicant will be notified
of the deficiencies and given a time period to complete the
application filing (a surcharge may be required) – at which time a
filing date as of the date of such a completed submission will be
obtained by the applicant.
• If the omission is not corrected within a specified time period, the
application will be returned or otherwise disposed of; the filing fee
if submitted will be refunded less a handling fee as set forth in the
fee schedule.
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61. 6. Provisional and Non-provisional
applications
• All applications received in the USPTO are numbered in
sequential order and the applicant will be informed of
the application number and filing date by a filing
receipt.
• The filing date of an application for patent is the date
on which a specification (including at least one claim)
and any drawings necessary to understand the subject
matter sought to be patented are received in the
USPTO; or the date on which the last part completing
the application is received in the case of a previously
incomplete or defective application.
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62. 7. Claims
• A set of properly drafted claims is an important part of
complete specification.
• The complete specification must have at least one
Claim.
• The first claim is the main claim.
• The subsidiary claims refer to the main claim and
include qualifying or explanatory clauses on the various
integers of the main claim or optional features.
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63. 7. Claims
• They may also contain independent claims.
• Although the claim clauses consist of a number of
claims, the totality of the claims must relate to
one invention only.
• It should be noted that a claim is a statement of
technical facts expressed in legal terms defining
the scope of the invention sought to be
protected.
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64. 7. Claims
• OBJECTIVE OF THE CLAIMS
TO DEFINE CLEARLY
AND
WITH PRECISION
THE MONOPOLY CLAIMED
SO THAT OTHER MAY KNOW THE EXACT
BOUNDARIES OF THE INVENTION
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65. 7. Claims
CONTENTS OF THE CLAIMS
1. CLAIMS SHOULD RELATE TO SINGLE INVENTION OR TO A GROUP
OF INVENTIONS LINKED SO AS TO FORM A SINGLE INVENTIVE
CONCEPT.
2. SHOULD BE CLEAR AND CONCISE
3. SHOULD BE FAIRLY BASED ON MATTER DISCLOSED IN THE
SPECIFICATION
4. PRINCIPAL CLAIM SHOULD DEFINE ALL ESSENTIAL NOVEL
FEATURES WITH THEIR INTER CONNECTION
5. OPTIONAL FEATURE MAY BE GIVEN IN SUBORDINATE CLAIMS
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66. 7. Claims
• The claims of a patent specification define the scope of protection of a
patent granted by the patent.
• The claims describe the invention in a specific legal style, setting out the
essential features of the invention in a manner to clearly define what will
infringe the patent.
• Claims are often amended during prosecution to narrow or expand their
scope.
• Independent claim setting out the broadest protection, and a number of
dependent claims which narrow that protection by defining more specific
features of the invention.
• In the U.S., claims can be amended after a patent is granted, but their
scope cannot be broadened beyond what was originally disclosed in the
specification. No claim broadening is allowed more than two years after
the patent issues.
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68. 9. Assignee
• Assignee includes an assignee of the assignee
and the legal representative of a deceased
assignee and references to the assignee of any
person include references to the assignee of
the legal representative or assignee of that
person
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69. 10. Inventor
• In patent law, an inventor is the person, or
persons in United States patent law, who
contribute to the claims of a patentable
invention.
• "Joint inventors", or "co-inventors", exist when a
patentable invention is the result of inventive
work of more than one inventor. Joint inventors
exist even where one inventor contributed a
majority of the work.
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70. 11. Anticipation
• If a claim reads on a single item of prior art – a
printed publication or a product – then that item of
prior art “anticipates” the claim must be rejected
under Section 102.
• Sometimes, however, a claim does not read on a
single item of prior art, but instead reads on a
combination of two or more items. In that case, the
claim may be “obvious” under Section 103.
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71. 11. Anticipation
• An examiner, who generally has a degree in science
or engineering (and in some cases, even a Ph.D. in
the area he or she is examining), can also take notice
that something is generally known in the field,
although it is preferable to cite to one or more
references.
• The references that the examiner has considered are
listed on the first page of the patent.
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72. 12. Obviousness
• First: Exactly who determines whether something
is obvious? Traditionally this was a person who
knows everything but has no creativity.
• However, one of the ways that the Supreme
Court has made obviousness stricter is by alluding
to the fact that a person who combines invention
A with invention B may in fact possess some
creativity.
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73. 12. Obviousness
• Going back to our example of the orange juice
squeezer on the pump: Let’s presume that you made a
very unique formula comprising, for example, an
epoxy.
• This epoxy is very efficient in securing a plastic orange
juice squeezer to a wooden handle on an air pump.
• In this case, you might be able to apply and obtain a
patent for this unique formula epoxy, but claiming the
combination of an air pump and orange juice squeezer
with the epoxy, might be deemed obvious, and hence
would not be granted a patent.
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74. 13. Infringement and Invalidation
• Patent infringement is the commission of a prohibited act with respect to a
patented invention without permission from the patent holder.
• Permission may typically be granted in the form of a license.
• The definition of patent infringement may vary by jurisdiction, but it typically
includes using or selling the patented invention.
• In many countries, a use is required to be commercial (or to have a commercial
purpose) to constitute patent infringement.
• The scope of the patented invention or the extent of protection is defined in the
claims of the granted patent.
• In other words, the terms of the claims inform the public of what is not allowed
without the permission of the patent holder.
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75. 13. Infringement and Invalidation
• Patents are territorial, and infringement is only possible in a
country where a patent is in force.
• For example, if a patent is filed in the United States, then
anyone in the United States is prohibited from making, using,
selling or importing the patented item, while people in other
countries may be free to make the patented item in their
country.
• The scope of protection may vary from country to country,
because the patent is examined by the patent office in each
country or region and may have some difference of
patentability, so that a granted patent is difficult to enforce
worldwide.
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76. 13. Infringement and Invalidation
Why invalidate?
• Invalidity searches can be useful as a defensive tool when a
company is concerned about infringing a particular patent.
•
• An invalidity search attempts to uncover issued patents or
other published prior art that may render a patent partially
or completely invalid.
• In contrast, validity searches can also be used to invalidate
an in-force patent thereby allowing a company to practice
that technology without paying royalties to the firm that
holds the rights to the patent in question
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77. 13. Infringement and Invalidation
What is required to invalidate?
• Active or lapsed or expired patent/publication
• Non-patent literature
– Scientific literature
– Old sales catalogs
– Trade journals
– Conference etc…
• The most importantly the priority date of source document
should be prior to the priority date of the patent to be
invalidated, in case of US
• In case of German, the publication date of source
document should be prior to the priority date of the patent
to be invalidated
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78. SOURCES OF INFORMATION
• www.ipindia.nic.in
• www.tdb.india.com
• www.nifindia.org
• www.indiainnovates.com
• www.sristi.org
• www.nrdcindia.com
• www.techbizindia.com
• www.wipo.org
• www.uspto.gov.in
• www.epo.org
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