ANNOUNCEMENTS
Intellectual property rights are the legal rights granted to individuals or entities for protection of intellectual innovations or creations which provide an exclusive ownership and control over the creation prohibiting others from using them without permission from owner. Patents are a significant component of intellectual property rights. Patents grant exclusive rights over the invention to the patent holder while preventing others from making, using, selling or importing their invention without permission for a limited time period, usually 20 years from date of filing of patent. The process for obtaining patent for an invention in India is a multi-stage process beginning from patentability search and drafting of patent specification for the invention followed by filing of patent application in Indian Patent Office either online or through physical mode where the application gets published within 18 months in general, and on request of examination, the first examination report for the patent application is issued. A response for first examination report needs to be submitted within 6 months from date of issue of first examination report. There is also a provision of hearing in case of outstanding objections against the patent application following which the patent can be granted or rejected. A certificate of patent grant is issued for an invention after successful approval of patent application by the Indian Patent Office. To understand the process of patent filing in India and drafting of well-structured patent applications for inventions based on medicinal plants, Quercus leucotricophora, Curcuma longa and Angelica archangelica are the objectives of the present project.
Keywords: invention, patents, patentability search, patent specification, patent application.
