Modified Format of Patent Grant Certificates

The Indian Patent Office has quietly introduced a change in the format of the patent grant certificate - no amendments, no gazette notifications. Effective from around the 5th of March 2025, the certificate of patent grant mentions the name(s) of inventor(s) alongwith the patentee’s name (earlier format only mentioned the patentee’s name). This is a small step with a significant impact that will benefit thousands of inventors, especially those employed in companies and the faculty/ researchers in academic or research institutions. This makes the certificate format similar to several countries such as China, Russia, Japan, etc. In jurisdictions such as the USA and Europe, the complete specification with the bibliographic data (including inventors' details) accompanies the grant certificate and a separate inventor certificate is unnecessary. This latest format not only serves to recognize the creative contribution of the inventor in the patented invention, but ensures that the moral rights of the inventors are preserved.

?A question mark arises over the ‘inventor(s) certificate’ scheme recently introduced in March 2024 through a Gazette notification. ?It took some time to implement the scheme, and the first batch of certificates was issued almost a year after. The scheme has some flaws and was destined to fail the moment it was announced. To recognize the inventors, the scheme required the individual inventors to apply for the certificate in respect of an issued, in-force patent after paying a fee of Rupees 900/-. In a situation where there are several inventors in a patent, each one can avail the certificate only individually after paying the requisite fees. Moreover, accessing or navigating the website can be an issue for an individual, necessitating the services of a patent professional for procuring the certificate. In a patent with six or seven inventors, one of the names could be missing, creating difficulties for availing the certificate.

It was made clear that the inventor’s certificate ‘did not confer or derogate from any rights’ (meaning that the certificate is a certificate, nothing more or less). This scheme is in stark contrast to the ‘authorship certificate’ in the erstwhile Soviet Union and other countries with communist regimes, the inventor (author of the invention) was eligible for some remuneration in case the invention was commercially utilized. Also, the patent laws in many countries require the employer to provide specified remuneration to the employee inventor. There is no such provision in the Indian statute, which leaves the task of incentivizing inventors to the employers. Thus the economic rights of employee inventors remain unclear.

?I suspect that the response to the inventor’s certificate scheme was poor, prompting the authorities to introduce the present change. Nevertheless, it is an initiative worth applauding. I accidentally noticed the change when an inventor displayed his patent grant certificate dated 07.03.2025 on LinkedIn. After going through some of the grant certificates date-wise, I concluded that the change was brought about effective 05.03.2025, but not all the grant certificates issued on this date bear the names of the inventors.

?The Patent Office has not officially withdrawn the ‘inventor’s certificate’ scheme, may be for the benefit of the inventors in cases where the certificates were issued before the change. But the question is, who would like to pay for getting a certificate for his/ her own invention?