NRDC GUIDELINES 
FOR

FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE FOR PATENTING IN INDIA

National Research Development Corporation gives financial assistance to scientists and researchers working in universities, R&D  institutions and laboratories and also to individuals in scientific and industrial fields for patenting their inventions which are proved to be workable, advantageous, useful and commercially viable.  Guidance to file the patent or on other patenting matters are: 

1.                  Application for financial assistance (FA) for patenting must be submitted to NRDC on the requisite forms along with a  non-refundable processing fee of Rs 500/- through a DD in the favour of National Research Development Corporation payable at New Delhi. 

2.                 FA for patenting is given to Indian Nationals only for protecting inventions i.e. a new product or process involving an inventive step and capable of industrial application. 

3.                There is no bar to the number of cases for FA.

4.                 Decision of the Corporation is final in this regard and no further correspondence will be entertained.  

5.                 FA for patenting is given normally to individuals working in Universities, Laboratories and R&D Institutes, Small and Medium Enterprises etc.  

6.                 Invention should be either an original product/process or an improvement on present product/process so as to increase utility of the product/process by enhancing consumer advantages like reducing cost/effort of the user/weight or volume, or by improving performance/accuracy/reliability/life/versatility etc.  It is preferable that the invention should have been practically tried out and established. 

7.                 The invention should not  be older than 12 months  at the time of application.  

8.                  If the inventor is employed, he should forward this application through his employer. 

9.                  The invention may be referred, if necessary to outside experts working in Government Organization educational institutions or public organizations to solicit opinion.  The patent office may also be consulted.  While all possible care for the safety and secrecy  of the inventions received will be taken, the Corporation will not be responsible for any loss or damage due to leakage of information pertaining to the invention.  Inventors are advised to seek prior protection by filing provisional patents Under Patents Act 1970 as amended by the Patents (Amendment) Act 2002, Patent Rule 2003, Patents (Amendment) Rule 2005 and Patents (Amendment) Rule 2006.

10.              An application for FA is liable to be rejected in case any information therein is found to be incorrect or the
          application is not accompanied with a demand draft of Rs 500/-. 

11.             FA shall not be granted if the subject matter of the inventions relates to the following  as per Section 3 of Patents Act.  

·        An invention which is frivolous or contrary to well established natural laws, e.g., perpetual motion machine.  

·         Invention's primary or intended use or commercial exploitation is contrary to law or morality or injurious to public health, e.g., any devices, apparatus or machine for theft, gambling apparatus or method for gambling, method of adulteration of food, etc.   

·       Scientific theories or mathematical models.

·       Substances obtained by a mere admixture, e.g., a mixture of different types of medicament or medicine to cure multiple diseases.

·       Mere arrangement or re-arrangement or duplication of known devices each functioning independently of one another in a known way, e.g., fixing a fan under an umbrella.

·         Method of Agriculture or Horticulture, e.g., method of cultivation of algae or mushroom.

·       Plant or animal varieties or essentially biological processes for the production of such plants or animal varieties, other than microbiological processes.

·       Scheme, rules or methods such as those for doing business or a computer program per se, performing purely mental acts or playing games.

·         Discoveries of materials or substance already existing in nature.

·       Method of treatment of humans or animals or diagnostic method practiced on humans or animals. e.g. Method of treatment of malignant tumour cells, method of removal of dental plaque and carries.

·         An invention, which in effect, is traditional knowledge or aggregation/duplication of known properties of traditionally known component(s). 

·         Inventions in the nuclear field (Section 4 of Patents Act).

·         The disclosure of an invention has become part of prior art by a description of invention in a published writing or publication in other tangible forms (a document, manuscript, pictures including photographs, drawings or films etc.)  

12.       Financial assistance shall be granted only if your invention is new (novel), useful (industrially applicable) and non-obvious (exhibit a sufficient "Inventive  Step")  and the disclosure of the invention must meet certain standards .

·         Novelty : An invention is new if there is any difference between the invention and current knowledge or the 'prior art'.

An invention is considered to be new if it does not form part of the state-of-the-art. The state-of-the-art is held to comprise everything made available to the public by means of a written or oral description, by use, or in any other way, before the date of  filing or priority date. An earlier disclosure is not prejudicial, however, if it occurs no earlier than twelve months preceding the filing of the patent application to display at an official or officially recognized exhibition.

Any disclosure of the invention before the date of filing, whether or not by the applicant himself, may be invoked against him as being comprised in the state of the art. 

·         Inventive step (non-obviousness): An invention will be considered as involving an inventive step if, having regard to the state-of-the-art, it is not obvious to a person skilled in the art. In other words, it must not be possible for an average expert to make the invention by mere routine work.

Determining whether or not the invention involves an inventive step depends on the specific details of each patent application and in particular the subject-matter of each claim. According to the circumstances, various factors are taken into account, such as the unforeseen technical effect produced by a new combination of known elements, selection of particular operating conditions within a known range, the degree of difficulty the person skilled in the art must overcome when combining several known documents, and  secondary considerations such as the fact that the invention solves a long-standing technical problem which there have been many attempts to solve.

Some examples of what may not be considered as inventive are: mere change of size; making portable; the reversal of part; the change of material; aggregation or mere substitution by an equivalent part or function. These are not considered to be inventive enough to merit a patent.

·         Industrial applicability (utility): An invention must be capable of being made or used in some kind of industry. This means that the invention must take the practical form or an apparatus or device, a product such as some new material or substance or and industrial process or method of operation.

An invention to be patentable must be useful or has some utility. The element of commercial or pecuniary success has no relation to the question of utility. However, where the improvement by reason of cheaper production, such a consideration is of the every essence of the patent itself and the question is of thing claimed can not be considered an invention unless that condition is fulfilled.

      If the invention gives the result as promised in the specification, objection on the ground of usefulness should fail. The usefulness of an alleged invention depends not on whether by following the directions in the complete specification all the results not necessary for commercial success can be obtained, but on whether by such directions the effect that the application/patentee professed to produce could be obtained.

The usefulness of the invention is to be judged by the reference to the state of things at the date of filing of the patent application. If the invention was then useful, the fact that subsequent improvement have replaced the patentable invention render it obsolete and commercially of no value, does not invalidate the patent.  

·         Adequacy of disclosure: An additional requirement of patentability is whether or not the invention is sufficiently disclosed in the application.

     It is therefore imperative that the description should disclose the invention in a manner sufficiently clear and complete for the invention to be evaluated, and to be carried out by a person having ordinary skill in the art.

     Specific operative embodiments or examples of the invention must be set out in the description. Examples and other descriptive passages should  be of a scope sufficient to justify the scope of the claims. The claims must be clear and concise and fully supported by the description.

     There is a requirement that the application should relate to one invention only, or to a group on inventions so linked as to form a single general concept. This requirement, referred to as "Unity of Invention" is particularly important when claims are being drafted.

13.      The applicant shall pay the patent annuity* which becomes due at the time of grant and thereafter to keep the patent alive and enforceable.

         The present schedule is as follows: 

     * The patent annuity is to be paid every year or for the entire period.  

14.  The inventor should conduct an international patent search, if possible before filing this application, to ascertain clearly the novelty aspect of the invention.

     Suggested Website, for conducting patent search, are:  

                        www.ipindia.nic.in
                   www.patinfo.nic.in
                        www.uspto.gov
                        www.wipo.int
                        www.epo.org

    For further information and any query, please contact:

                      V K Jain, Dy. Manager (IPR)

                      Phone : +91-11-29240401 - 08 (8 Lines) Extn. 127
                      Email: vkjain@nrdc.in