New Patent Rules 2014
Last year shortly after the Patent Agent Exam in 2013, IPO notified the proposal for amendment of patent rules and had invited comments from the stakeholders and public. The new amendments mainly had to do with increment in fee structure and introduction of new forms.
Today, Government of India notified that Patents (Amendment) Rules 2014 has come into force w.e.f. 28 February 2014. The said rules are available on the official website of the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (Ministry of HRD), www.dipp.nic.in, and of the Office of Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks, www.ipindia.nic.in.
What has changed now?
A sneak peek at the latest amendment reveals the following:
- Increased fee structure
- Introduced of a new entity “small entity“, similar to USA, and the fees charged to them has been fixed in between the fees for a natural person and for all persons other than natural persons (except a small entity). For example, filing fee is Rs.1600 for individuals, Rs.4000 for small entity and Rs.8000 for legal persons, i.e., companies.
- A new Form-28, to be submitted by the small entity has been introduced in the rules, which has to accompany every new application.
- To encourage digitization, the e-filing fee is 10% less than paper filing.
- A new Form 7 (A) has been provided for filing ” Representation Opposing Grant Of Patent” under sub-section (1) of section 25 and sub-rule (1) of Rule 55 of the principal rules.