Patent of Addition for Indian Inventions

According to the Indian Patents Act, 1970, a Patent of Addition is a patent granted under Section 54 of the Patents Act, 1970, which allows inventors to protect improvements or modifications to an existing patented invention without paying separate annual fees. The term of a patent of addition is the same as the term of the main application and remains valid during the validity of the main application. If the main application is revoked, the patent of addition may continue to be valid as an independent patent for the remaining term. This type of patent is beneficial for protecting incremental innovations and variations of the original invention, providing a cost-effective way to protect improvements made over time.

The time for filing an additional patent is not specified and is relatively flexible. Indian patent law allows applicants to file an additional patent at any time during the period of the parent application. Therefore, there is no specific deadline for an "additional patent", which provides inventors with an opportunity to protect improvements or modifications to existing inventions.