The 21st century has seen the emergence of global economy where world has moved from information to knowledge. Innovation and Creativity indeed has become the necessity for organizations to gain competitive advantage. The sustenance of this competitive advantage requires the protection of Intellectual Property (IP) which an individual or an organization possesses. In order to protect their Intellectual Property, Innovators needs to apply for patents. A patent which is an exclusive right granted for an invention needs to be novel. Hence, one of the important steps in patent filing process is “searching”, which is very much required to see whether the concept or product has been already patented and publicly made available before claiming the originality. To get a patent, technical information about the invention must be disclosed to the public in a patent application. This information is available from both free and fee-based sources across globe. This chapter attempts to presents different databases and tools available in India for Patent Search.
TopIntroduction
If you are in need of patent information what will you do? What are the tools available for obtaining patent information in India? These are some of the questions, the answers to which have become more important especially in a country like India which is growing at a rapid pace. A Patent is a protected innovation right, identifying with developments and is the concede of restrictive right, for constrained period, gave by the Government to the patentee, in return of full revelation of his creation, for barring others, from making, utilizing, offering, bringing in the licensed item or process delivering that item for those reasons. The main motivation behind this framework is to empower creations by advancing their assurance and use in order to add to the improvement of ventures, which thusly, adds to the advancement of mechanical development and to the exchange and spread of innovation. In easier words, we can say, a patent is a legal monopoly granted for a limited time to the owner of an invention, this way it empowers the owner of an invention and prevent others to manufacture, use, import or sell the patented invention.
India is a major market with a population of 1.21 billion people (2011 census), the second most populous country in the world and is a rapidly growing economy (Amit, Binal, & Sandhya). The number of patents being filed in India is increasing year by year, from 1st April 2015 – 31st March 2016, no of Application filed in India were 44258 and number of Patent granted were 5890 only! (PatSeer, 2016).
Figure 1.
Number of patents applied and granted in India
Patent right is regional in nature and a patent got in one nation is not enforceable in other nation. Hence, the innovators/their trustees are required to record isolate patent applications in various nations for getting the patent in various nations. Thus the necessity of robust sources from where information about various patents can be obtained has increased manifold.
TopPatent information today is available from both free and fee-based sources across globe. These sites allow users to search and retrieve patents for that authority and often, other countries. A search of a country’s official Web site sometimes yields the most thorough results for that authority’s pending and issued patents. Unfortunately, in India, government Web site may not be well suited for advanced searching as a fee-based service is essential for the professional searcher.
The best sources available for Indian Researchers/Innovators are:
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Websites, which provide extensive coverage of International and National patent documents such as patentscope.wipo.int. by World Intellectual Property Organization.
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Some other major sources for patent information in India include various intellectual property firms.
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In addition, a good option is website like anov.com that helps in patent validation and then help in filing a patent too.
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‘Google patents’ also, is a favorite place for applicants where lot of free information is available.
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Every organisation too has its own IP cell so even that can be a source of information.
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Patent attorneys or advocates in patent office likewise act as intermediaries to provide the patent information.