Patent Opposition

The process of obtaining a patent does not end there. If you own a patent, you must monitor the activities of competitors as well as new players entering the market and determine whether someone is patenting an idea in disguise that is similar to your intellectual property asset through various sources. If someone files an application in this manner, you, as the owner of the intellectual property asset, have the right to oppose the applicant within a certain time frame. This process necessitates patent monitoring, which also aids in understanding the current state of technology in the industry as well as the business activities of competitors in the industry.We at Mybusinessfilings, provide the most affordable Patent Opposition Services in India.

When a patent is granted, the applicant and inventors are granted exclusive rights to the invention that is novel, inventive, or that introduces a resolution, a technical solution to some problems, thereby making human life easier. A patent grant gives a patent holder the exclusive right to manufacture, promote and sell their invention. As a result, it is critical to ensure that patents are only granted to inventions that merit such exclusivity. Under patent law, opposition proceedings were created to prevent someone from wrongfully obtaining a patent and/or misusing its patent right by creating a competitive monopoly.As a safeguard against such a situation, Indian patent law allows for both PRE grant and POST grant oppositions. Depending on the stage of the application, the opposition proceedings may be filed as PRE grant or POST grant.

Pre Grant Opposition

PRE grant opposition allows an entity, a person, or even the government to file a pre-grant opposition against a patent application that has not yet been granted. PRE grant opposition is an excellent defense for ensuring the logic of a newly filed application before it is granted to someone. The only genuine grounds of PRE grant opposition are those listed in the Indian patent law [S.25 (1)(a) to (k) of the patent act]. This type of opposition can be filed at any time after the patent application is published and before the patent is granted by the Indian Patent Office.

Post Grant Opposition

POST grant opposition must be filed after the applicant has been granted a patent. Under this clause, any interested party, person, or government may file an opposition proceeding on the prescribed grounds and in the prescribed manner in accordance with Indian patent laws. Whereas the interested party can be anyone, including any researcher working in a related field or any company with financial interests. POST grant opposition can be filed at any time within 12 months of the patent grant notification. After 12 months from the date of notification of patent grant, the only option is to revoke the patent in high court at any time until the patent expires.

Key-benefit of Pre Grant & Post Grant Opposition

From the perspective of the patent office, the PRE grant opposition results in providing extra points or extra information to the examiner that may have been missed during examination and aids in preventing the grant of a patent to an invention that does not meet the requirements of patentability. POST grant opposition, on the other hand, adds an additional checkpoint to a granted patent if the patent was granted with an error during examination.

As we can see from the examples above, the methods and system enshrined in the Patents Act of 1970 for PRE grant and POST grant oppositions are quick and error-free in comparison to the few other forums that exist. The decisions of the patent controller also aid in understanding how the patent office's evaluation process works. To summaries, patent opposition is a powerful tool for corporations, companies, and other organizations that want to prevent a patent application from proceeding or who want to revoke the invention of a patent owner who was wrongfully granted a patent.