Patent drafting and its importance for patent protection

Patents are a driver for innovation, means for commercialisation and technology transfer and a tool for keeping the competition in check. Patents do not only offer monopoly over one’s innovation for a given period of time but also provide an imaginary boundary protecting an invention. In that way, anyone who without prior permission of a patent holder, uses, sells, manufactures or imports a product or uses or executes a process which is protected by a patent, ‘trespasses’ said boundary and infringes on the patent rights.

While most patent applicants are well informed about the filing process, there seems to be lack of awareness about how important patent drafting is: the patent will draw this imaginary boundary between what infringes on a patent what does not. Particularly SMEs, start-ups and independent innovators tend to face challenges in understanding how the protection defined in the techno-legal document called “complete specification” is enabled and how exactly the patent specification is used when it comes to enforcing their rights in India and elsewhere.

The article by European IPR Helpdesk explains about that process.

Source: European IPR Helpdesk