IP Intelligence
Patent Myths
Widely repeated beliefs about patents, and what the position actually is.
Showing 9 of 51.
“Once I file, I am protected.”
Filing gives you a date and a place in the queue. Enforceable rights arise only on grant, and only over whatever the granted claims actually cover.
“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 gazette-notified exhibitions and papers read before a learned society.
“My patent was granted, so I can sell my product safely.”
A patent is a right to stop others. It says nothing about whether you are free to sell. Somebody else may hold a broader right your product falls inside.
“Patent deadlines can always be extended if you pay.”
Some can. Several of the most important cannot, or their extendability is unsettled - and an application that misses one is simply treated as abandoned or withdrawn.
“Anything an employee invents automatically belongs to the company.”
Indian law does not transfer patent rights by implication as freely as people assume. Rights flow from inventors, and moving them needs something in writing.
“I can publish the paper now and file the patent afterwards.”
In India, publishing first usually destroys novelty in your own invention. The narrow learned-society limb of section 31 does not cover ordinary journal or conference publication.
“A patentability search tells me whether I can launch.”
They are different searches with different inputs and different outputs. Patentability reads disclosures anywhere in the world; freedom to operate reads claims that are in force where you sell.
“Renewal fees are collected automatically.”
Nothing is automatic. If a renewal is not paid within the period, or the six-month extension, the patent ceases to have effect.
“It does not matter which country I file in first.”
For a person resident in India it matters a great deal. Filing abroad first without permission, and without an Indian filing at least six weeks earlier, can lead to refusal or revocation of the Indian patent.
Keep going.
Every explanation here links to the ones next to it. Follow the thread rather than the menu.
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.