Indian Patent Office

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The Indian Patent Office is administered by the Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs & Trade Marks (CGPDTM). This is a subordinate office of the Indian government and administers the Indian law of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks.

Contents 1 Patent administration 2 History 3 Amendments to the Patents Act 4 Criticism 5 See also 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Patent administration

The CGPDTM has five main administrative sections:

• Patents
• Designs
• Trade Marks
• Geographical Indications
• Patent Information System

The patent office is headquartered at Kolkata with branches in Chennai, New Delhi and Mumbai, but the CGPDTM office is in Mumbai. The trade marks registry is located at Mumbai, and has branches in Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad and New Delhi. The design office is located at Kolkata, while the office of Patent Information System is at Nagpur.

The Controller General, who supervises the working of the Patents Act, the Designs Act, and the Trade Mark's Act, also advises the Government on matters relating to these subjects. Under the CGPDTMA, a Geographical Indications Registry has been established in Chennai to administer the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999.

The Indian patent office has as per their website has 134 Examiners, 31 Assistant Controllers, 4 Deputy Controllers, 1 Joint Controller, and 1 Senior Joint Controller, all of whom operate from four branches. Although the designations of the Controllers differ, all of them (with the exception of the Controller General) have equal authority in administering the Patents Act. Indian patent Examiner's submit their reports to the controller, who will have the power to either accept or reject examiner's reports. In 2005, the Indian Patent Office examined around 14,500 patent applications. ^[1]. The Indian Patent Office is implementing a modernization. ^{[opinion needs balancing]} The details of Indian Patent Office's modernization can be seen from this presentation by a Patent Office Official.(http://www.patentoffice.nic.in/ipr/patent/ipti/Topic%202.ppt) According to the Indian Patent Office website the "Indian Digitized Patent & Designs data bases are under preparation. ^[2]

[edit] History

• 1856: Act VI of 1856 on protection of inventions based on the British patent law of 1852. Certain exclusive privileges granted to inventors of new manufacturers for a period of 14 years.
• 1859: The act modified as Act XV; patent monopolies called exclusive privileges (making, selling and using inventions in India and authorizing others to do so for 14 years from date of filing specification)
• 1872: Patterns & designs protection act
• 1883: Protection of inventions act
• 1888: Consolidated as the inventions & designs act
• 1911: Indian patents & designs act
• 1972: Patents act (act 39 of 1970) came in force on 20th April 1972
• 1975: India joins WIPO
• 1995: The Indian government became a signatory to TRIPS (Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights) after it joined the WTO in 1995
• 1999: On March 26, Patents (Amendment) Act, (1999) came into force from 1 January, 1995
• 2002: Patents (Amendment) Act 2002 came into force from 20th May 2003.The concepts of 20 year patent term, 18 months publication, request for examination, inventive step for Patent-ability were introduced by this amendment
• 2005: Patents Act 1970 as amended by Patents (Amendment) Ordinance 2004 & Patent Rules 2003 as amended by The Patent Amendment Rules, 2005 come into force

[edit] Amendments to the Patents Act

Amendments (in 1999, 2002, 2005, 2006) were necessitated by India's obligations under TRIPS, allowing product patents in drugs and chemicals. Another important feature was the introduction of pre-grant representation (opposition) in addition to the existing post-grant opposition mechanism. The pre-grant representation has had success in a short span. One example is the abandonment of a patent application by Novartis on Gleevec (Imatinib Mesylate), revoking the earlier granted EMR on the same drug used to treat Leukemia.^{[citation needed]}

A controversial provision of this amendment was on software patent-ability, which was later withdrawn in another amendment (Patents Act, 1970, as amended by Patents (Amendment) Act, 2005). Patent Rules 2003 were amended in 2005 and again in 2006. Some of the important features of both the 2005 & 2006 Rules are the introduction of reduced time lines and a fee structure based on specification size and number of claims, in addition to a basic fee.

[edit] Criticism

Unlike EPO and USPTO, the Indian Patent Office does not allow access to Office Action's, called examination report. The Patent Office website says "The reports of examiners to the Controller under the patent law is not open to public inspection or be published and such reports shall not be liable to production and inspection in any legal proceeding unless the court certifies that the production or inspection is desirable in the interest of justice. ^[3] As per An Indian patent Attorney in a Leading IP magazine, patents which were beyond the Act were granted by the Office. ^[4]

[edit] See also

• United States Patent and Trademark Office
• European Patent Office
• Japan Patent Office
• Eurasian Patent Office

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Indian Patent Office
• [1]