Description
Every builder creates intellectual property: the code you commit, the product shape you sketch, the clever circuit in your final-year project, the name of the app you launch. Yet many engineers, coders and designers lose their rights by presenting before filing, assume they own work that belongs to an employer or college, ship products that break open-source licences, or build a brand on a name someone else has registered. This course explains, in plain English and with exact sections, fees and deadlines, how Indian IP law works for people who build things, and gives you a ready toolkit to protect and commercialise your work.
What you will learn
- Who owns what you create as an employee, freelancer, student or co-founder, including section 17 of the Copyright Act and college IP policies
- How to choose between patents, copyright, designs, trade marks, trade secrets and layout-design protection
- The patentability tests in the Patents Act, 1970, the section 3 exclusions, and how section 3(k) treats software and AI inventions after Ferid Allani, Microsoft (2023), OpenTV, BlackBerry and the Revised CRI Guidelines, 2025
- How to run a novelty search with InPASS, Google Patents, PATENTSCOPE and Espacenet
- Provisional and complete specifications, examination, opposition and the Patents (Amendment) Rules, 2024, with current fees and concessions for individuals, startups, small entities and educational institutions, and the PCT route
- Copyright in code and designs, the section 52 software exceptions, and compliance with GPL, MIT and Apache licences
- The Indian position on AI-generated code, art and inventions, including the 2026 DABUS decisions
- Design registration, trade marks for products and apps, NDAs and trade secrets, infringement remedies, licensing and assignment, with an IP audit checklist, invention disclosure form, open-source checklist and NDA outline
Who this course is for
Engineering and design students, software developers, product designers, researchers and research scholars, hackathon participants and startup builders who want a practical command of Indian IP law. No legal background is needed.
How the course works
6 modules, 18 lessons, with a quiz of 5 questions after each module. Every lesson works through real situations faced by builders, with Indian examples, explains the law that applies with section numbers, and ends with key takeaways. The last module is a practical toolkit: a step-by-step plan, an IP audit checklist for a project, an invention disclosure form template, an open-source compliance checklist and a mutual NDA outline with placeholders.
How the certificate works
- A final test of 30 multiple-choice questions, mostly real-life scenarios, with a 45-minute time limit
- Pass mark 60%; you can retry if you do not pass
- On passing, you receive a Lexfolio certificate with a unique ID that anyone can verify online at lexfolio.in/verify-certificate/
- It is a certificate of completion from Lexfolio, not a degree, diploma or professional qualification, and it does not qualify anyone as a patent agent or trade mark agent
This course is for education and general information, not legal advice for a specific case. Law as on 31 October 2026. For a specific situation, consult a lawyer or a registered patent or trade mark agent, or your District Legal Services Authority (NALSA helpline 15100).
Access: after payment, open My account > Courses and start learning. Lifetime access.
Access: after payment, open My account > Courses (or the course page) and start learning. Lifetime access to this course.
Free guides for this course
- Software Patent India: What Can Be Patented Under Section 3(k)
- Open Source Licence Types Explained for Developers in India
- Design Registration India: Process and Fees Under the Designs Act
- Trademark Registration for Startups India: Classes, Fees, Process
- AI Generated Work: Copyright Ownership in India Explained
- Patent Filing Process India: Step by Step Guide 2026
