What’s in Today’s Article?

• Background
• About Patent (Meaning, Indian Patent Act, Key Features of Draft Patent Rules, 2023)
• India’s Patent Delays & Withdrawals (Numbers, Causes, etc.)
• Recent Rise in Patent Filing

Background:

• In 2018, the Indian Patent Office had rejected the request of the Proctor and Gamble (P&G) for its patent application.
  • The Indian Patent Office is an agency under the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade which administers the Indian law of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks.
• The P&G challenged the Patent Office’s ruling in the Delhi High Court. The High Court reprimanded the Patent Office saying that the manner of dealing with the application filed by the American multinational company was “extremely arbitrary and whimsical”.

What is a Patent?

• A patent is the granting of a property right by a sovereign authority to an inventor.
• This grant provides the inventor exclusive rights to the patented process, design, or invention for a designated period in exchange for a comprehensive disclosure of the invention.
• Government agencies typically handle and approve applications for patents.
• The Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks (CGPDTM), also known as India Patent Office, grants patent so that any invention can be freely commercialised or utilised without any fear of infringement.
  • The head patent office is located in Kolkata, West Bengal.
• The Indian Patent Office grants patents which are governed by the Indian Patents Act, 1970.

Indian Patents Act, 1970:

• The Patents Act 1970, along with the Patents Rules, 1972, came into force in April 1972, replacing the Indian Patents and Designs Act, 1911.
• The Patents Act was largely based on the recommendations of the Ayyangar Committee Report headed by Justice N. Rajagopala Ayyangar.
• Later, India became signatory to many international arrangements with an objective of strengthening its patent law and coming in league with the modern world.
• One of the significant steps towards achieving this objective was becoming the member of the Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) system.
• Significantly, India also became signatory of the Paris Convention and the Patent Cooperation Treaty in 1998 and thereafter signed the Budapest Treaty in 2001.
  • Being a signatory to TRIPS, India was under a contractual obligation to amend its Patents Act to comply with its provisions.
• Subsequent amendments were made to the Indian Patents Act, 1970 by the introduction of the Patents (Amendment) Act, 1999, the Patents (Amendment) Act, 2002, the Patent (Amendment) Act, 2005, and Patents (Amendment) Rules, 2006 and the Patents (Amendment) Rules, 2021.

Draft Patents (Amendment) Rules, 2023:

• In August 2023, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry proposed and published Draft Patent (Amendment) Rules, 2023 (the “draft rules”) invited objections and suggestions from all stakeholders within a timeline of 30 days from the date of the publication of the draft Rules.
• Key Highlights of the Draft Rules:
  • Pre-Grant Opposition
    • Controller can decide a maintainability of the representation and dismiss a pre-grant opposition if found to be frivolous.
    • At present, Controller cannot dismiss the representation without offering a chance of hearing to Opponent.
    • Time period for applicant to reply to notice has been reduced from 3 months to 2 months.
    • Also, Controller has to issue a decision ordinarily within 3 months from the completion of the proceedings.
    • Currently, there is no such in which the Controller has to issue a decision.
  • Reduced timeline for filing Request for Examination
    • As per the draft Rules, the timeline for filing the RFE is now proposed to be reduced to 31 months, which currently is 48 months from the priority date or filing date, whichever is earlier.
  • Statement and undertaking regarding foreign applications
    • Applicant shall keep the Controller informed of the details in respect of applications filed in any country within two months from the date of issuance of first statement of objections.
    • Earlier the duration was six months.
  • Annual Working Report
    • The draft Rules propose that the Annual Working Report is to be filed in respect of every period of three financial years (currently this is to be filed for every financial year).

India’s Patent Delays & Withdrawals:

• In 2018, the anti-corruption branch of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) booked SP Subramaniyan, Deputy Controller and branch head in the office of Controller-General of Patents, Designs and Trademarks for demanding a bribe of Rs 10 lakh for releasing a patent.
  • The patent applicant in this case had first applied for the patent in 2010 and was allegedly made to wait for five years to get a patent.
• In March 2023, the Delhi High Court pulled up the patent office for passing “mechanical, cut-paste order” while rejecting Blackberry Ltd.’s invention application.
  • The Court said that the patent office “must bear in mind that the question of grant and rejection of a patent is a serious matter”.

Impact of Delays & Withdrawals:

• Arbitrary refusals and procedural inconsistencies have marred the track record of India’s patent office.
• It has pushed the share of patent applications withdrawn in India to one of the highest in the world.
• This is at a time when countries such as the US, Japan, South Korea and China are using their patent processing systems to foster scientific research and technological innovation.
• Government officials contend that they have begun addressing these issues and started conducting open house sessions to address grievances, which have improved the process of granting patents over the last 12 months.

Rise in Patent Filing in Recent Times:

• India reported a sharp 44.6% growth in international patent filing in 2023 compared to 2022, as per the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
• WIPO ranked India third in terms of trademark registrations in force in 2022 at nearly 2.9 million, after China (42.7 million) and the US (3.1 million).
• The Patent Office has granted about 1 lakh patents for the year 2023-24. Everyday about 250 patents are issued and the patent office receives patent applications every six minutes online.