I have a provisional patent regarding an electronic device (with outline of software black boxes as software alone cannot be patented in India). It is about to expire in sometime (12 month period).
Initial plan was to file non-provisional patent within 12 months. However, due to change in circumstances, we have decided to drop the patent (as I may/may not be physically present in India for sometime).
Now, the question is regarding what could be done regarding this patent if second inventor and I have to retain the inventorship. (We are ready to forego the rights of inventorship as many organisations including AST do not consider Indian patents. We tried to sell during this 12 month period and have already disclosed this provisional patent online and offline.)
I checked Indian Patent Act of 1970. In that, according to section 9, subsection 1, abandoned provisional patents are never published. The priority date is lost after 12 months if non-provisional patent is not filed.
What could be done regarding this patent if second inventor and I have to retain the inventorship for 20 years or the stipulated period (even if we forego the rights)? We are ready to publish it as a whitepaper in some reputed patent journal or so.
Any help will be greatly appreciated.