What is the procedure to patent any scientific discoveries?

Question

What is the procedure to patent any scientific discoveries
like : Alternate Fuel for Bike etc..

Answer 1

A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a state to a patentee (the inventor or assignee) for a fixed period of time in exchange for the regulated, public disclosure of certain details of a device, method, process or composition of matter (substance) (known as an invention) which is new, inventive, and useful or industrially applicable.

The exclusive right granted to a patentee in most countries is the right to prevent or exclude others from making, using, selling, offering to sell or importing the claimed invention. The rights given to the patentee do not include the right to make, use, or sell the invention themselves. The patentee may have to comply with other laws and regulations to make use of the claimed invention. So, for example, a pharmaceutical company may obtain a patent on a new drug but will be unable to market the drug without regulatory approval, or an inventor may patent an improvement to a particular type of laser, but be unable to make or sell the new design without a license from the owner of an earlier broader patent covering lasers of that type.

The term "patent" originates from the Latin word patere which means "to lay open" (i.e. make available for public inspection) and the term letters patent, which originally denoted royal decrees granting exclusive rights to certain individuals or businesses.

Legal effect:-- patent provides the right to exclude others from making, using, selling, offering for sale, or importing the patented invention for the term of the patent, usually 20 years from the filing date. A patent is, in effect, a limited property right that the government offers to inventors in exchange for their agreement to share the details of their inventions with the public. Like any other property right, it may be sold, licensed, mortgaged, assigned or transferred, given away, or simply abandoned.

In order to obtain a patent, an applicant must provide a written description of his or her invention in sufficient detail for a person skilled in the art to make and use the invention. This written description is provided in what is known as the patent specification, which often is accompanied by figures that show how the invention is made and how it operates. In addition, at the end of the specification, the applicant must provide the patent office with one or more claims that distinctly point out what the applicant regards as his or her invention. A claim, unlike the body of the specification, is a description designed to provide the public with notice of precisely what the patent owner has a right to exclude others from making, using, or selling. Claims are often analogized to a deed or other instrument that, in the context of real property, sets the metes and bounds of an owner's right to exclude. The claims define what a patent covers or does not cover. A single patent may contain numerous claims, each of which is regarded as a distinct invention.

In order for a patent to be granted, that is to take legal effect, the patent application must meet the requirements of the national law related to patentability.

A patent is an exclusionary right. It gives the patent owner the right to exclude others from infringing the patent. That does not, however, necessarily give the owner of the patent the right to exploit the patent. For example, many inventions are improvements of prior inventions which may still be covered by someone else's patent. If an inventor takes an existing patented mouse trap design, adds a new feature to make an improved mouse trap, and obtains a patent on the improvement, he or she can only legally build his or her improved mouse trap with permission from the patent holder of the original mouse trap, assuming the original patent is still in force. On the other hand, the owner of the improved mouse trap can exclude the original patent owner from using the improvement.

Patents can generally only be enforced through civil lawsuits (for example, for a US patent, by an action for patent infringement in a United States federal court), although some territories (such as France and Austria) have criminal penalties for wanton infringement.[1] [2] Typically, the patent owner will seek monetary compensation for past infringement, and will seek an injunction prohibiting the defendant from engaging in future acts of infringement. In order to prove infringement, the patent owner must establish that the accused infringer practices all of the requirements of at least one of the claims of the patent (noting that in many jurisdictions the protection may not be limited to what is literally stated in the claims, for example due to the "doctrine of equivalents").

An important limitation on the ability of a patent owner to successfully assert his or her patent in civil litigation is the accused infringer's right to challenge the validity of that patent. Civil courts hearing patent cases can and often do declare patents invalid. The grounds on which a patent can be found invalid are set out in the relevant patent legislation and vary between countries. Often, the grounds are a sub-set of the requirements for patentability in the relevant country.

The vast majority of patent rights, however, are not determined through litigation, but are resolved privately through patent licensing. Patent licensing agreements are effectively contracts in which the patent owner (the licensor) agrees not to sue the licensee for infringement of the licensor's patent rights, usually in return for a royalty or other payment. It is not uncommon for companies engaged in complex technical fields to enter into dozens of license agreements associated with the production of a single product. Moreover, it is equally common for competitors in such fields to license patents to each other under cross-licensing agreements in order to gain access to each other's patents. A cross license agreement could be highly desirable to the mouse trap developers discussed above, for example, because it would permit both parties to profit off each other's inventions.

Patent ownership
In most countries, both natural persons and corporate entities may apply for a patent. The entity or entities then become the owners of the patent when and if it issues.

In the United States, however, only the natural persons (i.e. the inventors) may apply for a patent. If a patent issues, then each person listed as an inventor owns the patent separately from the other. For example, if two inventors are listed on a patent, then each one may grant licenses to the patent independently of the other.

It is common in the United States for inventors to assign their ownership rights to a corporate entity. [3] Inventors that work for a corporation, for example, often are required to assign their ownership rights to their corporation as a condition of their employment. Independent inventors often assign their ownership rights to a single entity so that only one entity has the right to grant a license.

The ability to assign ownership rights increases the liquidity of a patent as property. Inventors can obtain patents and then sell them to third parties. The third parties then own the patents as if they had originally made the inventions themselves.

Governing laws:--The grant and enforcement of patents are governed by national laws, and also by international treaties, where those treaties have been given effect in national laws. Patents are, therefore, territorial in nature.

Commonly, a nation forms a Patent Office with responsibility for operating that nation's patent system, within the relevant patent laws. The Patent Office generally has responsibility for the grant of patents, with infringement being the remit of national courts.

There is a trend towards global harmonization of patent laws, with the WTO being particularly active in this area. The TRIPs Agreement has been largely successful in providing a forum for nations to agree on an aligned set of patent laws. Conformity with the TRIPs agreement is a requirement of admission to the WTO and so compliance is seen by many nations as important. This has also led to many developing nations, which may historically have developed different laws to aid their development, enforcing patents laws in line with global practice.

A highly notable international convention related to patents is the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property which was initially agreed in 1883. The Paris Convention sets out a range of basic rules relating to patents, and although the convention does not have direct legal effect, the principles of the convention are incorporated into all notable current patent systems. The most significant aspect of the convention is the provision of the right to claim priority: filing an application in any one member state of the Paris Convention preserves the right for one year to file in any other member state, and receive the benefit of the original filing date. Because the right to a patent is intensely date-driven, this right is fundamental to modern patent usage.

The authority for patent statutes in different countries varies. In the United States, the Constitution empowers Congress to make laws to "promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts..." The laws Congress passed are codified in title 35 of the United States Code and created the Patent and Trademark Office|[2]. In the UK, substantive patent law is contained in the Patents Act 1977 as amended.[4]

In addition, there are international treaty procedures, such as the procedures under the European Patent Convention (EPC) (administered by the European Patent Office (EPO), and the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) (administered by WIPO and covering approximately 133 countries worldwide), that centralise some portion of the filing and examination procedure. Similar arrangements exist among the member states of ARIPO, OAPI, the analogous traties among African and Asian countries.

As explained in more detail in European patent law, the EPC covers approximately 30 European states, including all European Union states except Malta. The EPO examines and grants "European patents" which, subject to minor formal requirements, then acquire the same status and force as national patents under the national laws of such EPC contracting states as the applicant designates. EPC Art. 2(2) [5] The EPC remits almost all substantive issues of European Patents, post-grant, to national law.

The PCT does not provide a central, international, granting authority, but rather allows a number of the common procedural steps required to obtain a patent to be carried out for a single application. The PCT system is therefore an efficient route to obtaining a patent in a large number of countries as many of the steps need only be performed once. A PCT application also delays many of the highly-expensive stages of prosecuting a patent.
PATENT APPLICATION:-
A patent application is a request pending at a patent office for the grant of a patent for the invention described and claimed by that application. An application consists of a description of the invention (the patent specification), together with official forms and correspondence relating to the application. The term patent application is also used to refer to the process of applying for a patent, or to the patent specification itself.

In order to obtain the grant of a patent, a person, either legal or natural, must file an application at a patent office with jurisdiction to grant a patent in the geographic area over which coverage is required. This will often be a national patent office, such as the United Kingdom Patent Office or the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), but could be a regional body, such as the European Patent office. Once the patent specification complies with the laws of the office concerned, a patent may be granted for the invention described and claimed by the specification.

The process of "negotiating" or "arguing" with a patent office for the grant of a patent, and interaction with a patent office with regard to a patent after its grant, is known as patent prosecution. Patent prosecution is distinct from patent litigation which relates to legal proceedings for infringement of a patent after it is granted.
Patent prosecution describes the interaction between an applicant, or their representative, and a patent office with regard to a patent, or an application for a patent. Broadly, patent prosecution can be split into pre-grant prosecution, which involves negotiation with a patent office for the grant of a patent, and post-grant prosecution, which involves issues such as post-grant amendment and opposition.

PATENT PROSECUTION is distinct from patent litigation, which describes legal action relating to the infringement of patents.

Preparation of an application
In obtaining patent rights for an inventor, the practitioner first drafts an application typically by interviewing the inventor to understand the nature of the invention and help clarify novel features (and often to ascertain what is already known to people familiar with the general field of the invention—such already-known material is termed the prior art), and to obtain drawings and written notes regarding the features of the invention and the background.

During this initial phase, sometimes termed "patent preparation", the practitioner may also seek to determine precisely who contributed to the making of the invention (because an incorrect listing of inventors may incurably invalidate any patent that might result from an application. This determination is particularly important in the United States, but may be considered less important under other juridictions. The practitioner may also seek to find out whether any publications, offers for sale, or other such public disclosures of the invention were made. These issues are important because under certain circumstances, public disclosures or offers to sell an invention prior to filing an application for a patent may prevent the issuance of a patent for the invention, under the laws or regulations of some jurisdictions (in the United States, the laws preventing obtaining patents because of previous disclosures or offers to sell are termed "statutory bars").

After drafting an application for patent, complying with any further rules (such as having the inventor or inventors review the application prior to filing), and obtaining the applicant's permission, the practitioner then files the patent application with the patent office. Usually, the practitioner seeks to file the application as soon as possible, because in a majority of jurisdictions (such as Europe and Japan) if two or more applications for the same subject matter are filed, then only the party who filed first will be entitled to seek a patent (this is known as the "first-to-file rule"). Even in other jurisdictions (such as the United States, which does not follow the "first-to-file rule"), early filing may prevent the use of certain materials from being applied against the patent application as prior art while the patent application is pending before the patent office.

Search and examination
Search and examination is the principle part of the prosecution of a patent application leading to grant.

A search is conducted by the patent office for any prior art that is relevant to the application in question and the results of that search are notified to the Applicant in a search report. Generally the examiner conducting the search indicates in what aspect the documents cited are relevant (novelty, inventive step, background) and to what claims they are relevant. The materials searched vary depending on the patent office conducting the search, but principally cover all published patent applications and technical publications. A preliminary, non-binding, opinion on patentability may be provided with the search report in order to indicate to the Applicant the Patent Office's thoughts on an application such that they can decide how to proceed at an early stage.

The search report is typically published with the patent application, 18 months after the earliest priority date, or if it is not available at that time it is published once it is available.

The examination of patent applications may either be conducted at the same time as the search (as in the US, where a search report is not issued), or at a later date after the Applicant has requested examination (as, for example, under the EPC).

Examination is the process by which a patent office determines whether a patent application meets the requirements for granting a patent. This includes considering whether the invention is novel and inventive, whether the invention is in an excluded area and whether the application complies with the various formalities of the relevant patent law.

If the Examiner finds that the application does not comply with any requirements an examination report (Office Action in the US) is issued drawing the Examiner's objections to the attention of the Applicant and requesting that they be addressed. The Applicant may respond to the objections arguing in support of the application, and/or making amendments to the application to bring it in to conformity. Alternative, if the Examiner's objections are valid and cannot be overcome, the application may be abandoned.

The process of objection and response is repeated until the patent is in a form suitable for grant, the Applicant abandons the applications, or a hearing is arranged to resolve the matter.

In some jurisdictions substantive examination of patent applications is not routinely carried out, instead the validity of invention registrations is dealt with during any infringement action.

The search and examination process is principally conducted between the patent office and the Applicant. However, in some patent law systems it is possible for interested third parties to file opinions on the patentability of an application which may be taken into account by the patent office.

An applicant is free to abandon an applicaiton during the search and examination process. This may be done if, for example, prior art is revealed that will prevent the grant of a patent and the Applicant decides to save cost by terminating the application. An application may be deemed abandoned by the Patent Office if the Applicant fails to meet any of the requirements of the application process, for example replying to a Examination Report.

Deferred examination
In some jurisdictions (such as Japan and Korea), after filing an application, examination is optional, and only on request, rather than automatic. For example, in Japan, an application is published at 18 months after the priority date, but otherwise the application lays fallow until the applicant demands examination, up to 7 years after filing. This gives the applicant time to evaluate which applications are worth spending money on, and which should simply be abandoned. Only a portion of the total number of filed applications are selected for examination by the applicants.
Invention registration
Some jurisdictions go one step further: an application is passed to issue and publication as an enforceable patent in short order, with no substantive examination. Examples include Bermuda, and German Gebrauchsmusteren (utility model). Consideration of novelty and non-obviousness/inventive step is left open until litigation. Obviously such a patent does not carry the same presumption of validity as a patent that has been fully examined. Such systems are known as "invention registration" regimes, and have the benefit of reduced costs because applicants may postpone or completely forego the expensive process of examination for inventions that are of small or speculative value to the applicant's main fields of endeavor. At the same time, simply lodging an application usually preserves the applicant's right to later seek full examination and protection for his or her invention, if a competitor or pirate is later discovered to infringe the applicant's invention.

Appeals
However, if the examiner and the applicant cannot reach agreement regarding the patentability of the application, the applicant may lodge an appeal to either the patent office or to a court of law, asserting that his or her patent application was wrongly rejected. For such an appeal to be successful, the applicant must prove that the patent office was incorrect in its application of the law, in interpreting the claims of the patent application, or in its interpretation and application of the prior art vis a vis the patent application. If the appeal is successful, the patent office or court may order that a patent be issued based on the application, or that the patent office correct its examination of the application if the patent office is found to have been incorrect. Otherwise, if the applicant is not found convincing, the rejection of the patent application may be upheld.

Abandonment
Generally, an applicant is free to abandon his or her patent application at any time, and in many jurisdictions may "disclaim" his or her patent even after the patent is issued. Such abandonment may occur during the prosecution process, such as when the applicant is unable to convince the patent office to withdraw a rejection of his or her patent application. Further, abandonment is often held to have occurred if the applicant fails to respond within a certain time period to an office action issued by the patent office, or if the applicant specifically expresses his or her intention to abandon the application.

Following abandonment, in most jurisdictions, an applicant is usually barred from later seeking patent protection for the same subject matter which was earlier abandoned by the applicant.
Reissue, Reexamination and Interference
Once a patent is issued, in some jurisdictions, the patent holder may request a "reissue" of the patent to correct mistakes in the issued patent. Such "reissue applications" must typically be filed within a particular period of time following issuance of the original patent. In some jurisdictions, such as the United States, the patent holder may even seek to broaden the scope of the invention defined in the claims by filing a reissue application, although a broadening reissue in the USA must be filed within 2 years from grant. Also, in the United States, only the patent holder may file for reissue.

In United States patent practice, "reexamination" refers to the process of requesting that the patent office once again subject an issued patent to further examination, usually accompanied by newly discovered prior art and/or an explanation of the relevance of the prior art to the claimed invention. Unlike reissue, reexamination may be requested by anyone, not only the patent holder or inventor, although whoever requests reexamination must also submit the fee (which is about equal to the full cost of filing a new patent application). A benefit of reexamination is that issued patents may be either invalidated or once again deemed valid, without the considerable cost and lengthy time required for a full infringement lawsuit or declaratory judgment action.

Also, in the United States, if two patent applications are filed which set forth claims directed to the same subject matter, the patent office may declare an "interference" and require that each of the parties appear before the patent office to determine who was the earliest to discover the claimed invention. This "interference practice" is not followed in most other jurisdictions, because it is obviated by the "first-to-file" system used in most countries. During an interference, parties may submit evidence supporting their contention to be the earliest inventor, and the patent office issues a decision following the trial-like interference process.

Answer 2

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Answer 3

Talk to a patient attorney...every one is a know it all !

Answer 4

there is the patent registration act in force in.. u need to dfollow procedures defined in the said act while making application to registration authority

Answer 5

have u made a discovery?????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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