Presenting at a conference before you file

Where the exception actually sits

Section 31(d) covers a paper read by the true and first inventor before a learned society, or published with his consent in the transactions of such a society, with twelve months running from the reading or publication.

That is specific. A conference organised by a commercial body, a workshop, an industry summit, a poster session, an online talk - none of these can be assumed to fall inside it. Nor can the conference proceedings, unless they are the transactions of a learned society.

And the exhibition limb requires the exhibition to have been extended to section 31 by a Central Government notification. Most trade fairs have not been.

The practical sequence

File first, present second. A properly written provisional takes days, not months, and the twelve months that follow are exactly the period you would have spent preparing the paper anyway.

If the abstract deadline has already passed and the abstract itself discloses the invention, that abstract is the date to work from - not the presentation.

What to actually do

• Treat abstracts and posters as publications with their own dates.
• Do not assume section 31 covers your conference.
• File before the abstract deadline where possible.
• Keep the submitted version and its date.