Patent registration speeded up

Patent registration has become faster and patent filing has increased four-fold since 1999-2000 in India. It has taken the number of TM certificates issued to 1.74 lakh last year as compared with just about 8,010 in 1999-2000.

Similarly, the number of design application has nearly doubled to 4,017 in 2004-05 as against 2,874 in 1999-2000.

Similar progress is also seen in the grant of intellectual property rights (IPRs). In 2005-06, 4,320 IPR patents were granted, as against only 907 patents being filed in 1996-97. With regard to design IPRs, the comparative figures stood at 2,853 in 2005-06 and 1,765 in 1996-07.

Trademark IPRs, however, had seen a steep increase to 1,84,325 from 4,686 during the decade.

The Controller General of Intellectual Property Office (IPO) of the Government of India which set up a state-of-the-art offices in the four regional headquarters of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata for registering patents, designs and trademarks, and geographical indications, earned a revenue of Rs 70 crore last year.

Giving these figures at the N R Foundation in Mysore on October 7, Controller General of IPR S Chandrashekaran said the backlog of patent applications had been brought down to a pendency level of just one month pendency level and all backlog in respect of TMR (trade mark registration) applications have been wiped out.

A business-like service orientation has been adopted with modernisation initiatives like the state-of-the-art integrated IPO buildings, decentralisation of procedures, networking of offices with more staff, IT enabled functioning and complete digitisation of all patent and trademarks records.

As a result, TM registration was possible in 12 months and 15 months, and patent processing from 8 months to 10 months, while it took 7-8 years earlier. In fact, seven patents were granted within 6-10 months. A quicker clearance was possible if the applications are drafted correctly and if there are no objections, he said.

Karnataka topped in registration of geographical indications (GIs). Of the 24, ten were from Karnataka. They covered famous products like Mysore agarbatthi (incense sticks from Mysore), Mysore silk, Mysore betel leaf, Mysore sandal soap, Mysore sandalwood oil, Mysore rosewood inlay, Nanjangud Rasabale (plantain), Coorg orange, Bidriware and Channapatna toys and dolls. In all 30-32 rights have been granted so far.

Mysore's CFTRI director V Prakash, who also addressed the seminar said CSIR alone held over 40 per cent of patents with CFTRI contributing around 5,000 at 1,000 patents every year.

The country's potential for IPR registration was very high with a tradition dating back a few thousand years, he said and suggested digitisation of traditional knowledge, networking of patents as in China, and a traditional knowledge database wing at the IPO.

The speed at which applications were cleared by the IPO had come as a boost to the industry, said NR Group's R N Murthy.