Before you disclose your invention

Run this before any demonstration, paper, pitch, launch or supplier email.

CriticalBefore filingInventorFounder

India has no general grace period. Anything already available to the public before your priority date can be prior art against your own application - including things you did yourself. Tick anything that is true.

Tick anything that is true. Each tick opens a short note on why it matters. Nothing you tick is sent anywhere - it stays in this browser tab.

Have you demonstrated it publicly?A working demonstration can disclose the invention completely, even without a written description.
If yes: Record the date, the venue and exactly what was shown. Then take advice before filing, because what was not shown may still support claims.
Have you published anything about it?Papers, preprints, blog posts, whitepapers and press releases are all publications with dates.
If yes: Find every version and its date, including accepted-manuscript postings, which usually predate the print issue.
Have you put it online?A product page, a spec sheet, a GitHub repository or a video is available to the public and is archived.
If yes: Check the Wayback Machine for your own site. It will be one of the first places an opponent looks.
Have you sold it, or offered it for sale?A sale or an offer can be a public disclosure and a public working.
If yes: Gather invoices, quotations and purchase orders with dates. What was disclosed in them matters as much as the sale itself.
Have you shared technical details without a written confidentiality agreement?Disclosure under an obligation of confidence is different from public disclosure - but the obligation has to be real and provable.
If yes: List every recipient. Recipients with no signed agreement are the problem, not the ones with one.
Have you presented at a conference or trade fair?Section 31 covers only gazette-notified exhibitions and papers read before a learned society - not ordinary conferences and trade fairs.
If yes: Check whether the exhibition was notified under section 31. Do not assume it was.
Have you shown it to investors?An architecture slide can disclose more than several paragraphs of text.
If yes: Keep the enabling detail out of the circulated deck and in a separate annex under NDA.
Have you filed anywhere already?Your own earlier application publishes at eighteen months and then becomes prior art against later filings.
If yes: Map what each earlier filing disclosed before deciding what a new filing can cover.
Is at least one inventor resident in India?Section 39 requires permission, or an Indian filing at least six weeks earlier, before filing abroad.
If yes: Deal with this before any foreign filing. It is a rule about residence, not nationality.

If you ticked anything, do not assume the position is hopeless - and do not assume it is fine. Both conclusions are usually wrong. What matters is exactly what was made available, to whom, and when.

Sources & further reading

The Patents Act, 1970 (consolidated to 1 August 2024) — Official IP India text

CriticalCriticality

You told the world before you told the Patent Office

In India there is no general grace period. If your invention was made available to the public before your priority date, that disclosure is prior art against your ow…

Before filingBeginner

CriticalMyth

India gives you twelve months after you publish to file.

India has no general grace period. Sections 29 to 32 exclude only specific, narrow situations from anticipation, and the twelve-month limb in section 31 applies to g…

Guided answer

I disclosed my invention publicly. What now?

Working out how much damage was done, and what is still available.

Thinking about filing?

Before anything is drafted, the useful work is establishing what is already public, what is genuinely yours, and what you can honestly claim.

Book a patentability check Talk to us first

Educational guidance, not legal advice. This material is published by Ragulika IP for general education and information. It is not legal advice, it does not create a professional-client relationship, and it is not a substitute for advice on your own facts. Patentability, infringement, prosecution strategy and every other IP outcome turn on the specific facts and on the law and Patent Office practice as they stand at the time you act. Please take professional advice before making a decision, and read the underlying provision or judgment before relying on any point stated here.

Last reviewed by Ragulika IP on 2026-08-23. Indian patent law and Patent Office practice change; check the position before you rely on it.