The Patents (Amendment) Rules, 2019
Government of India issued a Notification on September 17, 2019 making rules further to amend the Patents Rules, 2003.
The major amendments are as follows:
There is good news for Patent Applicants who wish to get their patent granted soon, as the categories who can file Request for Expedited Examination in Form 18A along with the prescribed fees has the new inclusion of that the
- applicant is a small entity; or
- applicant is a natural person or in the case of joint applicants, all the applicants are natural persons, then the applicant or at least one of the applicants is a female; or
- applicant is a department of the Government; or
- applicant is an institution established by a Central, Provincial or State Act, which is owned or controlled by the Government; or
- applicant is a Government company; or
- applicant is an institution wholly or substantially financed by the Government; or
- applicant pertains to a sector which is notified by the Central Government on the basis of a request from the head of a department of the Central Government; or
- applicant is eligible under an arrangement for processing a patent application pursuant to an agreement between Indian Patent Office and a foreign Patent Office.
- apart from that the applicant is a startup or that India has been indicated as the competent International Searching Authority or elected as an International Preliminary Examining Authority in the corresponding international application which already exists in the Patent Rules as amended in 2016.
The other one is there is no fee for transmitting International application (for ePCT filing) & for preparation of certified copy of priority document and e-transmission through WIPO DAS.
The minor amendment includes deletion of “including scanned copies of documents that are required to be submitted in original” in rule 6(1A) and addition of “startup” in the second proviso of rule 7.
Also READ
