Patent Act-12

What are the criteria for naming inventors in an application for patent?

The naming of inventors is normally decided on the basis of the following criteria:

i. All persons who contribute towards development of patentable features of an invention should be named inventor(s).

ii. All persons, who have made intellectual contribution in achieving the final results of the research work leading to a patent, should be named inventor(s).

iii. A person who has not contributed intellectually in the development of an invention is not entitled to be included as an inventor. iv. A person who provides ideas needed to produce the ‘germs of the invention’ need not himself / herself carry out the experiments, constructs the apparatus with his/her own hands or make the drawings himself/herself. The person may take the help or others. Such person who have helped in conducting the experiments, constructing apparatus or making the drawings or models without providing any intellectual inputs are not entitled to be named inventors.

Quite often difficulties are experienced in deciding the names of inventors. To avoid such a situation, it is very essential that all scientists engaged in research should keep factual, clear and accurate recorded of daily work done by them in the form of diary. The pages in the diary should be consecutively numbered and the entries made be signed both by the scientists and the concerned leader.