Last year, Mr. Arun Jately has released a new and renovated IPR policy that
seeks to encourage innovation and improve access to healthcare, food security,
and environmental protection. His opening statement was "Every country is
entitled to defend its economic interests, monopolies are loved by those who own
themâ€. Though I am writing on this topic a bit late but being an IPR
professional, I have witnessed the changes by myself and felt compelled to write
on this topic.
This policy covers all forms of intellectual property in a single framework and
praised by industry professionals. Current government’s approach to
strengthening IPRs with a view to foster innovation and protect India’s
traditional knowledge is viable. IPRs are often seen as the only way to ensure
that creators of knowledge and culture receive returns for their efforts/work.
Given the structure of India’s economy and the nature of knowledge production in
it, what should be our approach to property rights in knowledge and culture?
These issues remain un-debated even as policies continue to be drafted and
implemented.
The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) launched a scheme
“Startups Intellectual Property Protection†(SIPP), which provided
“Facilitators†– by reimbursing their professional charges – to assist Startups
in filing and processing their applications for patents, design, and trademarks.
It is also noteworthy that a lower official fee for Startups filing applications
has been provisioned in both the Patent (Amendment) Rules 2016 as well as the
Trade Marks Rules 2016.
The Patent (Amendment) Rules 2016, aimed at bringing in more efficiency and
faster prosecution of applications. The Indian Patents Rules, 2003 has been
amended by way of Patents (Amendment) Rules, 2016. The amendment came into
effect on May 16, 2016. The current amendment is substantial, and can certainly
have an impact on the patent filing and prosecution strategy, among other
things. Below points are very significant in the context of the new IPR rules.
1. Prior to the amendment, Indian Jurisdiction recognized only three types of
Applicants, viz., natural persons, small entity and other than the small entity.
With the amendment under the new rule, the fourth type of applicant called
"Startup" is being recognized and certain benefits are being provided to
startups.
An entity will be considered a startup as long as the below-listed conditions
(non-subjective conditions are listed in this article) are met by the entity.
-The entity has to be a Private Limited company (as defined in the
Companies Act, 2013), or a registered partnership firm registered under section
59 of the Partnership Act, 1932 or a limited liability partnership under the
Limited Liability Partnership Act, 2002.
-Five years should not have elapsed since the date of registration
or incorporation of the entity.
-Turnover in any of the financial year should not be more than INR
Twenty Five crores.
-The entity should not have been formed by splitting up or
reconstruction of a business already in existence.
2. One more important amendment is with respect to national phase filing in
India. Prior to this amendment, the Indian national phase application was
required to be filed as it is at the PCT stage. For many instances, applicants
wanted to file Indian National phase application with reduced claims to save on
fees or for other reasons but not allowed to do so. This is now possible only
after the current amendment, an applicant can delete claims while filing
national phase application in India.
3. Another important amendment is with respect to the time period within which
the applicant has to put the application in order for the grant once the
examination report is issued by the patent office. Prior to the amendment, once
the patent office issues an examination report, the applicant had one year to
interact (respond to objections) with the patent office and put the application
in order for grant. The current amendment has decreased the time period from one
year to six months, with an option of a three months extension.
One can clearly see that by amending the rules, Government seems determined to
encourage the IP ecosystem in India. Two different objectives from the recent
amendments are to encourage the small companies and startups to file more
patents and reducing the timeline and unnecessary procedures in the path of
patent prosecution. I hope that these changes will soon reflect positive
outcomes towards the benefit both, IPR industry in India in India and National
interests in IPRs.
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