We all are very clear with the understanding and the importance of early filing date and priority date in the patent application. A patent is granted on the premise that the invention is non-obvious and constitutes inventive steps. These issues are very much interlinked with that of the filing date since an early filing date is acknowledged as prior art. The priority date of a patent relates to the earliest filing date from within a family of patent applications that constitutes a similar invention. If the matter involves just one patent application, the priority date would be the filing date of that single application. If there are more than one related patent applications involved, the patent’s priority date would then be the filing date of the first patent filing that initially revealed the invention.

Why Early Filing?

This helps in constituting the criteria of the non-obviousness nature of the invention. The earlier date is the proof of an invention being obvious if a similar invention is being filed at a later date. All big corporations, tech, and design-based businesses, and international brand companies are very much cautious in their approach to convincingly prove that they are the first to demonstrate and record any new idea, design, or code. That is also very obvious that various cases turn on proving who the first one to establish the right was.

If you are the first one to file a patent application for an invention such as engineered talking hearing aid or the self-engineered audible vision device or a design right application on a packet or a new song where the song has been written first which one can think or even designing a new website, the inventor or the creator is at a far better position to claim his right and even win any legal battle along the way. Generally, the necessary part of proving that the creation was developed first sometimes does not feature on the priority list of inventors, scientists, artists, etc. In various copyright cases, the issues are not primarily based upon the substantial similarity but on the premise that the creator can show that he is the owner of the work and he is the first to write it. Well, these issues are closely linked with the understanding that the creativeness of someones is aided if it can be proved that the work existed before the other or before anyone knew about it.

This analysis undoubtedly provides us with a fundamental need to have third-party verification of the date of existence. This can be a way further for substantiating the fact that the work has been crafted before the other, thereby, giving an upper hand in the legal fight as well. The digital process of taking the attendance of employees in a factory is not new. But having a slightly different approach of digital date stamping technology could prove to be inevitable for the IP related matters to fingerprint a creator’s file to prove its existence can be very useful for unfolding digital landscape in IP related matters. This will be a quick, easy, and efficient system which can record very crucial date of existence. This will not only be beneficial for the copyrighted work but also for inventions, trade secrets, creative and industrial designs, and other forms of IP.

WIPO’s PROOF: A Need of the Hour?

World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has provided a new digital platform called WIPO PROOF which is used to critically identify the exact date of existence for individuals and companies alike. WIPO PROOF is an online service that rapidly produces tamper-proof evidence which you can use to prove that your digital file existed at a specific point in time.

Whether you have creative work, a product design, an invention, or research data and insights from the innovation process, WIPO PROOF is an additional way to safeguard valuable intellectual assets. In seconds, WIPO PROOF uses industry-leading security technology to generate a globally recognized digital fingerprint of your intellectual asset. This is your WIPO PROOF token – an encrypted record of your digital file’s DNA and existence, dated and time-stamped the second it is created. Tokens are valid indefinitely. WIPO PROOF stores them securely for 5 years (renewable on request), keeping them compliant with evolving encryption technologies. All this information is readily available at - https://wipoproof.wipo.int/wdts/.

There are some of the definitive advantages of this Stamp of authority. This stamp provides the official seal of authority which makes it an international sanctioned document that will undoubtedly carry more weight in many of the IP cases throughout the world. The significant value that the document holds will give a competitive advantage for the company or individual in the legal battle. The WIPO PROOF is only limited to the creation of the document at a specific timeline. The function does not extend to the formalistic function with regards to the procedural aspects of IP registration. Neither does this WIPO PROOF confers any such intellectual property rights. It is the only official confirmation of the simple proof of the date of existence. At a time when we are seeing a booming development in various sectors, the WIPO PROOF was an inevitable need of the hour for individuals and companies.     

Author: Saransh Chaturvedi (an advocate) currently pursuing LLM from Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law (IIT Kharagpur).  In case of any queries please contact/write back to us at support@globalpatentfiling.com.