With pendency rates ranging up to four years, India's patent
owners have a range of options to protect their innovations while
they wait, explains Joginder Singh of LexOrbis.
Patenting can sometimes be time-consuming. As of today, the
Indian patent office, (IPO), can take three to four years to grant
a patent under the regular examination process, so what can an
applicant do when a competitor starts copying an invention before
the grant of a patent, ie, while a patent application for the same
invention is pending with IPO for disposal?
It can be annoying to see competitors copying an invention while
a patent application is pending for grant. It is pertinent to note
that the product for which a patent has been applied, or the
product made by a process for which the patent has been applied,
can be marked as "patent pending" to notify that a patent
has been applied for but not yet granted. The marking serves as an
express notice to notify potential infringers that they
