Notification on proposed amendments to the Patent Rules, 2003

Draft Rules inviting objections from the public have been issued, intending to amend the Patent Rules, 2003. The move aims to expand the categories of applicants who can avail of an expedited examination procedure, in particular, applicants of the countries whose Patent Offices have signed a mutual Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) Agreement with the IPO. A beginning in this direction was made recently with the bilateral PPH program with Japan Patent Office. Other notable changes include waiver of the transmittal fees for PCT International application filed electronically by an Indian PCT applicant; constitution of bench for disposal of pre-grant oppositions, etc.

Applications for registering as Facilitators under SIPP scheme

Recently, by way of a Public Notice dated October 18, 2018, in light of the need to revise the list of facilitators, the TM Office has invited applications for registering as facilitators under the SIPP scheme. The deadline to submit applications is November 20, 2018.

In 2016, the Government of India announced Start-ups Intellectual Property Protection (SIPP) scheme to protect and promote Intellectual Property Rights of start-ups and encourage innovation and creativity among them. The aim was to enable start-ups to avail cost-effective IP services of qualified attorneys, agents or organizations enrolled as facilitators under the scheme. The facilitators do not charge any fee from the start-ups and are paid directly by the Central Government through the Office of The Controller General Patents, Designs & Trade Marks.

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