Patent Agents

An engineering graduate in Navi Mumbai has built a clever sensor and wants a patent. The application needs a specification that is part science and part law: a technical description and claims that define the legal boundary of the invention. Who writes that document for a fee and appears before the Controller? Only a patent agent, or also a lawyer? And can a consulting company with a fancy name call itself a patent agent? The Patents Act has a full chapter on the profession, and several of its rules surprise law students.

In two minutes

A patent agent is a person registered under the Act; to register a person must be an Indian citizen of at least 21 with a science, engineering or technology degree who passed the qualifying examination (or served ten years as examiner or Controller's delegate), and only registered individuals or firms of registered partners may practise, while companies cannot (ss.125 to 132).

The rest of this chapter

The full explanation, the cheat sheet, every previous-year question at every mark weight, the quiz and the answer skeletons are part of Intellectual Property Laws on LexBlox Semester. Sign in to unlock the subject, or read Module 1 of Legal Language and Writing free.