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Patent Criticalities

The things that quietly decide whether an invention can be protected - explained before they cost you anything.

Showing 7 of 56.

High

The prior art nobody checked

Prior art is anything already available to the public, anywhere in the world, in any language, in any form. A team can be genuinely original and still be second - an…

Before filingBeginner
High

The invention is new - and still not patentable

Indian law has a filter that operates completely independently of novelty and inventive step. Section 3 lists things that are not inventions at all - and something c…

During examinationIntermediate
High

The wrong people are named as inventors

Inventorship is not authorship, seniority or reward. It is a factual question about who devised the invention **as claimed** - and because claims change during prose…

Before filingIntermediate
High

Nobody decided what the priority date was for

Priority is not a property of your application. It attaches, claim by claim, to whatever was fairly disclosed in the filing you are relying on. Treating it as a sing…

Before filingAdvanced
High

The provisional that covered nothing

A provisional specification buys a date for the subject matter it actually describes. A two-page document that states the idea without explaining how it works buys a…

Before filingIntermediate
High

The application is in the wrong name

The applicant is who will own the patent. Getting it wrong affects fee category, chain of title, who can sue, and what an investor sees in diligence - and correcting…

Before filingIntermediate
High

The invention changed after you filed

A patent application protects what it described on the day it was filed. Engineering does not stop on that day - and the version you eventually sell is often meaning…

During draftingIntermediate

LowWorth knowing
MediumCould create complications
HighCan materially affect protection
CriticalAct before proceeding

This is the Ragulika IP Educational Criticality - our own editorial prioritisation device, to help you decide what to read first. It is not a legal score, it is not calculated from your facts, and it says nothing about the strength of any particular application.

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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.