IP Intelligence
Patent Myths
Widely repeated beliefs about patents, and what the position actually is.
Showing 20 of 51.
“More claims mean a stronger patent.”
Strength comes from the breadth and defensibility of the independent claims. A long claim set of trivial variations adds cost, not protection.
“A clean prior art search means the patent will be granted.”
No search is exhaustive. Applications are unpublished for eighteen months, non-patent literature is poorly indexed, and examiners search differently from anyone else.
“You can get a worldwide patent.”
There is no such thing. Patents are national. A PCT application is a procedure that keeps options open; it is never granted.
“The twenty year term starts when the patent is granted.”
It runs from the filing date - or, for a PCT application designating India, from the international filing date. India has no term extension or adjustment.
“An examination report means my application was rejected.”
It is an opening position. Nearly every Indian application receives objections, and receiving them says almost nothing about the quality of the invention.
“Patent registration and patent filing are the same thing.”
There is no registration process for patents in India. An application is filed, published, examined, argued and then either granted or refused. Registration is how trade marks and designs work, not patents.
“Changing one word in the claim makes it new.”
Novelty is about technical content, not vocabulary. Renaming a component does nothing; a different technical feature might.
“A patent means nobody can use the technology at all.”
A patent stops others doing what the claims cover, in the country that granted it, for its term - subject to defences and statutory exceptions.
“Marking a product patent pending stops competitors copying it.”
It is a signal, not a right. You cannot bring infringement proceedings until the patent is granted.
“A patent is a one-time cost.”
Filing is the small part. Prosecution, foreign filings, national phases, renewals for up to twenty years and portfolio management are the large part.
“The inventor always owns the patent.”
The inventor is the person who devised the invention. The owner is whoever holds the rights, which may be an employer, a university or an assignee.
“My copyright in the code or drawings protects the invention.”
Copyright protects the expression - the particular code, the particular drawing. It does not protect the technical idea, and a competitor who writes their own implementation does not infringe it.
“A design registration and a patent are the same thing.”
A design protects the appearance of an article - shape, configuration, pattern, ornament. A patent protects how something works. They are different statutes with different tests and different terms.
“Filing it myself is basically the same and much cheaper.”
Filing is easy. Drafting is not. The document you file determines what you can claim, what you can amend to, and what the patent is eventually worth.
“It was granted in another country, so India will grant it too.”
Each office applies its own law. Indian subject-matter law differs materially, particularly on business methods, methods of treatment and new forms of known substances.
“Nobody actually opposes patent applications.”
In several Indian industries opposition is routine. Publication makes your application visible to every competitor, and pre-grant opposition is open to any person.
“My patent is strong because the invention was hard to make.”
Strength comes from claim scope and defensibility, not from how much work the invention took.
“A higher patent count means a stronger IP position.”
Count is the least informative number about a portfolio. What matters is what a competitor cannot do without a licence.
“Keeping it secret is always safer than patenting it.”
Trade secrecy gives no protection against independent invention or reverse engineering. Patents do - at the price of publication and a fixed term.
“Once my application is published, my position is locked in.”
Publication is when your competitors start reading it. The pre-grant opposition window opens, and your claims have not yet been examined.
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.