The Hindu : Business : Patents (Amendment) Rules notified

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, May 12, 2006

Business

Business

Patents (Amendment) Rules notified

Special Correspondent

Definitive timeframes have been prescribed for various activities

NEW DELHI: The Union Government on Wednesday notified the Patents (Amendment) Rules 2006, in a bid to bring in more transparency, decentralisation of the functioning of patent offices and simplifying the procedures to make them user-friendly. According to Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath, "the recent amendments to the Patents Rules represent yet another major step forward in India's endeavour to develop a vibrant and user-friendly intellectual property regime which would facilitate as well as encourage innovation and creativity"

An official release says under the new rules, patent applications are now to be mandatorily published within one month after expiry of the statutory period of 18 months. In case of request for an early publication, the application is to be published within one month from the date of request. This step will introduce an element of certainty regarding the date of publication, it is stated.

With a view to enforcing transparency and ensuring time bound disposal of patent applications, definitive timeframes have also been prescribed for various activities by the patent offices. A patent application now has to be referred to an examiner within one month of a request for its examination and the controller will be required to take a decision within one month of its submission. Further, the release says that the first Examination Report must be issued within six months of the date of request for examination of a patent.

In order to make the system user-friendly, timelines available for applicants and the public have also been extended. Accordingly, the timeframe for making a request for examination has been extended from 36 to 48 months, while the time for filing a pre-grant opposition has been extended from three to six months. The time for filing reply to pre-grant opposition has been extended from one to three months and the time for meeting the requirements of the first examination report increased to 12 months.

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