What a Specification Is

In one line

A specification is the document in which the inventor describes the invention, and it comes in two kinds: a provisional one that buys a date, and a complete one that buys the patent.

In the wording a student can write in an exam: section 9 of the Patents Act, 1970 provides that where an application is accompanied by a provisional specification, a complete specification shall be filed within twelve months from the date of filing of the application, failing which the application shall be deemed to be abandoned.

Why there are two kinds

Because inventions are not finished when they are first had. An engineer who sees the answer on a Tuesday may need eight months of work before the design is settled. Under absolute novelty, every week of that eight months is a week in which somebody else may file or publish.

So the Act lets the inventor stop the clock early. A provisional specification describes the invention as far as it has gone, secures the filing date, and gives twelve months to complete the work.

And the price is that the date is only as good as the description. A provisional that does not disclose a feature gives no priority for that feature, and chapter 530 works section 11, which fixes priority claim by claim.

The provision itself

Section 9(1). Where an application for a patent, not being a convention application or an application filed under the Patent Cooperation Treaty designating India, is accompanied by a provisional specification, a complete specification shall be filed within twelve months from the date of filing of the application, and if the complete specification is not so filed, the application shall be deemed to be abandoned.

Section 9(2). Where two or more applications in the name of the same applicant are accompanied by provisional specifications in respect of inventions which are cognate or of which one is a modification of another, and the Controller is of opinion that the whole of such inventions are such as to constitute a single invention and may properly be included in one patent, he may allow one complete specification to be filed in respect of all such provisional specifications. Its proviso: the twelve months shall be reckoned from the date of filing of the earliest provisional specification.

Section 9(3). Where an application, not being a convention or Treaty application, is accompanied by a specification purporting to be a complete specification, the Controller may, if the applicant so requests at any time within twelve months from the date of filing, direct that such specification shall be treated as a provisional specification and proceed with the application accordingly.

Section 9(4). Where a complete specification has been filed in pursuance of an application accompanied by a provisional specification, or by a specification treated as provisional under sub-section (3), the Controller may, if the applicant so requests at any time before grant of patent, cancel the provisional specification and post-date the application to the date of filing of the complete specification.