What is non-patentable in India

• Frivolous claims contrary to well-established natural laws
• Anything contrary to law or morality, or injurious to public health
• Mere arrangement or rearrangement or duplication of known devices, each functioning independently of one another in a known way
• A method or process of testing applicable during the process of manufacture for rendering the machine, apparatus or other equipment more efficient or for the improvement or restoration of the existing machine, apparatus or other equipment or for the improvement or control of manufacture
• A method of agriculture or horticulture
• Inventions related to atomic energy
• Computer software
• Aesthetic creations
• Discoveries, scientific theories, mathematical methods
• Schemes, rules or methods for performing mental acts playing games or doing business
• Presentation of information
• Methods of treating humans or animals through surgery, or therapeutical diagnostics
• Animals and plants, and biological methods for rearing/growing them(however, microorganism is patentable in India
• Products made by chemical synthesis_foods, medicines

Source : Gearing up for Patents:The Indian Scenario by Prabudha Ganguli, Universities Press (India) Limited, 1998.

Invention

An invention may be defined as the idea of making a new and useful article, method or substance. The WIPO Model Law for Developing Countries on Inventions (1979) defines invention 'as an idea of an inventor which permits in practice the solution of a specific problem in a field of technology.' The basic root of the word 'invention' comes from the Latin word 'invenire' which means 'to come upon'. With most inventions there is a sense of surprise. There may be many reasons for making invention. The most obvious ones are:

• For personal satisfaction
• For solving a problem faced in everyday life
• For being recognised by others
• For the desire to take up a challenging/interesting task
• For the desire to make money