Software patents part 2

Office which grants patent application and deals with related matters

Before going to further discussion it is pertinent to mention here that generally the trademark and patent office grants the application for patent.

United States of America

In US the patent office is United States Patent and Trademark Office which is an Agency of the Department of Commerce. USPTO has its head office at Alexandria, Virginia, U.S.The USPTO is in co-operation with the European Patent Office (EPO) and the Japan Patent Office (JPO) as one of the Trilateral Patent Offices. The USPTO also works as a Receiving Office, an International Searching Authority and an International Preliminary Examination Authority for international patent applications filed according to the different terms and conditions and clauses of the Patent Cooperation Treaty. Michelle Kwok Lee is the Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

The Appellate body for the decisions passed by patent examiners is the Patent Trial and Appeal Board or PTAB, an administrative law body of the USPTO. The Appellate authority for Decisions of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board is the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, or a civil suit may be brought against the Commissioner of Patents in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. The United States Supreme Court may ultimately decide on a patent case.

2012 under the America Invents Act, Patent Trial and Appeal Board or "PTAB" as mentioned here in before substituted the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences. This federal statute that was passed by Congress and was signed into law by President Barack Obama on September 16, 2011.

The inventors themselves or their patent agents or attorneys can file patent applications in electronic form. One can also search for the patent applications and patents issued by the authority in USPTO site.

India

In India the Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs & Trade Marks (CGPDTM), a subordinate office of the Government of India administers Patents, Trade Marks and Designs. The CGPDTM reports to the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion.It has five main administrative sections:

Patents
Designs
Trademarks
Geographical indications
Patent Information System

The Patent Office has its head office at Kolkata. It has several branch offices in different cities of India like Mumbai and Chennai, New Delhi. The Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs & Trade Marks (CGPDTM) is at Mumbai.The Offices of National Institute of Intellectual Property Management (NIIPM) and The Patent Information System (PIS)are at Nagpur. In this context it may be mentioned here that the Design Office is located at Kolkata in the Patent Office.

Patent Laws in US

United States patent law is under the authorization of the U.S. Constitution. According to the
Article One, section 8, clause 8 The Congress shall have power ... To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries

Article One, Section 8, Clause 8 is also refereed to as the:

Patent and Copyright Clause;
Intellectual Property Clause
Progress Clause etc

This aforesaid Clause 8 of Section of Article 1 gives the inventors and/or the patent holders exclusive right to the invention for a term of 20 years and after the said term is over the invention with full disclosure goes to the public domain.

Patent law is found under Title 35 of the United States Code. section 103[4] requires that an invention must not only be new, but also "non-obvious".

Sections 100-105
deals with the "patentability" of inventions i.e the types things that qualify for patent protection.
Section 101[2]
deals with the patentable "subject matter".
Section 102[3]
deals "novelty" and "statutory bars" to patent protection.

Patent Laws in India

In India patent law is governed by THE PATENTS ACT, 1970. This said Act has been amended from time to time.