Blog Details

Author - Associate Nupur Mehrotra

A Patent is a grant of monopoly power by the state to an inventor who is given the exclusive right to commercially exploit his or her invention for a given period of time.

It is a right which is exclusively given to an individual for the invention of a product or process that finds new solutions to the problem or provides a new way of doing any work. It provides protection for the invention. It is generally granted for a limited period of 20 years. Patents are necessary as they help in recognizing the individual’s creative work and provides incentives for the same. This in return encourages innovations and enhances the quality of one’s life.

Patent protection refers to the state when the inventions cannot be used or sold commercially without the consent of the owner. During the patent period, the owner has complete right to decide who may or may not use the invention. It is upon the owner’s wish to give permission to the opposite party to make use of the invention. Patents are granted by the national patent office after the complete examination of the invention. The invention must be of practical use and must carry some new characteristics. It is very important for business firms to get their work secure through patents so that they earn their share of profit and reward as well as their work is not used by the other party.

In recent years several reforms have been introduced in the patent system in India which has added benefit to the business organizations, startups, etc. This system has also tried to solve the issues related to the lack of human resource in the Indian Patent Office.

It has become very important to protect future technological innovation through patents or otherwise, it would lead to discouragement for future innovations.

Getting the patent for technology would lead to the following advantages of the person responsible-

• It will certainly give higher profit margins for the product and service. There are various technologies for which a person needs a long time for research and development. If the patent for such product is not done in time the competitors might copy the product and the pre-done research will be advantageous to them and it can also be cost-effective. So by getting the patent done the innovator and take over the competitors and avoid unwanted entry in the market.
• It will also give way to long term business model, development in a controlled manner and proper deployment of the technology. It would give sufficient time for building relationships with customers for the proper testing of the product.
• Getting a patent done might reduce competition in the industry. It will always work in a favourable condition for the owner in all the circumstances. If some other organization comes to know about the innovation they can use the same product as there would be a fear of infringement and on the other hand even if they manage to come up with the same kind of technology, they will have to make usage of some extra resources to avoid infringement. This will surely give a competitive advantage over others.
• Next most important issue for startups is ‘funds’. Once the patent is received for a particular technology it would give an assurance to others that the invention is unique and have future profit hopes. Investors will be influenced easily and raising fund would not remain an exhausting task.
• Patents will also add to the advantage of ‘royalty payments’. Other organization who need the particular technology will use it in return of high royalty. Patents are for a long number of years which gives assurance for long term royalties.
• Getting the patents done would surely help in generating extra income by getting the license for the technology in various markets. One technology produced for one market may have used for other markets too.

It is very important that every person should get to know about the technological advancement happening all around the world. For this, it is necessary that the inventors bring their innovation in the public and give some information about it so that progress can take place. But people can fear that disclosing their innovation might take away from them their ownership or rights. For this particular reason, it becomes more important that patents are done so that the innovator receives his part of share and also the society is benefitted.