Govt brings in fast-track option for patents

The amendment also offers application withdrawal

After coming out with the Intellectual Property Rights policy last week, the government has now amended the Patent Rules, which offers applicants the option of fast-tracking examination of patents, apart from providing benefits to start-ups to increase and streamline patent filings.

The amended rules, notified on Monday, include a provision allowing patent applicants to request expedited examination. Apart from attracting more filings, especially from start-ups, the government hopes this will streamline the patent examination system.

Currently, after an application for a patent is filed, a separate request for examination has to be submitted. It takes an average five-seven years for a patent to be examined after this request is made.

"The option to expedite will likely see this gap reduced to less than a year," Rajiv Aggarwal, joint secretary at the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, said. All such requests will constitute a separate list of patents pending approval, apart from the existing list which has around 237,000 patents waiting to be approved, he added.

However, the fast-track option will only be open to new applicants, provided they agree to select India as the International Search Authority (ISA) and file applications in India first. India is one of the 18 countries who are designated as ISAs, part of the global system for searching existing patents.

The move is expected to stop the stream of patent applications filed initially in other countries and moved to India later. While small and medium enterprises have to pay double the usual charge for the process, for larger companies the charges will be three times higher. Start-ups, defined as an entity with a turnover below Rs 25 crore, have been listed as single individuals and will enjoy low filing charges.

Also, the government has targeted to bring down the time taken to examine all patents down to 18 months by March 2018. The government has hired 458 new examiners to help the existing 130. The cost of filing too has been revised.

While an individual would have to pay a base charge of Rs 1,600 for a new patent, the charge for small and medium enterprises has been fixed at Rs 4,000, and that for a larger company would be Rs 8,000.

The rules have also allowed patents to be withdrawn from the registration process free of charge. "This will help unclog the queue as a lot of applicants do not withdraw a patent despite knowing the application is not commercially viable, solely because of the charges involved," Aggarwal said. Citing the case of Japan, where the withdrawal rate is about 15 per cent, he said about 10 per cent of pending applications could be withdrawn.

In matters of patent dispute, the rules have also limited the number of adjournments an applicant can take at two, at a maximum of 30 days each. Currently, the rules are silent on this issue.