WELCOME CHANGES TO THE IP SYSTEM IN INDIA
The Government of India’s push towards a digital economy has been embraced
wholeheartedly by the Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs & Trade Marks
(CGPDTM) which has taken several progressive steps to implement the objectives of National
IPR Policy launched by the Government of India on 12th May 2016, one of the objectives
being Administration and Management of IP, in particular, modernization and strengthening of
a service-oriented IPR administration.
In a bid to achieve this objective, the Office of the CGPDTM has launched recruitment
drives to expand its staff of Examiners of Patents and Designs. Additionally, Trade Mark
Examiners and Patent Consultants of the rank of Deputy Controller and above, are being
engaged on contract basis.
The digitization of the IP system has already increased efficiency in areas such as filing
of applications, receipt of examination reports by email, online generation and dispatch of
patent grant and trade mark registration certificates, and transparency by way of availability of
all filed documents online for Patents and Trade Marks. Further, patent applications are being
allocated for examination across all patent offices to reduce pendency
Conducting patent hearings via video-conferencing has vastly improved ease of access
to stakeholders. A very welcome initiative is introduction of video-conferencing as a mode of
conducting trade mark hearings.
Further, the IP Office has been regularly holding meetings with IP stakeholders where
the stakeholders put forth their suggestions of changes necessary to the IP system, many of
which the IP office has agreed to implement.
The Office of the CGPDTM has recently invited Expression of Interest from national and
international organizations for making use of current technologies like Artificial Intelligence,
Blockchain and Internet of Things in the Patent processing system. With implementation of
these technologies, the speed, quality and consistency of processing of applications is bound
to improve radically. According to the DIPP, the think-tank of the Government of India, NITI
Aayog, is working on a blockchain-enabled platform called ‘IndiaChain’ for Indian enterprise
and government which once implemented will be world’s largest blockchain implementation
program in governance.
These innovative measures once implemented will transform the functioning of the IP
office and lead to an improved IP system in India.
