India: First Examination Report to be issued within 18
months
As per the news reported
in India’s daily Economic Times, the Department of Industrial Policy and
Promotions is aiming to reduce the time taken to issue the First Examination Report
(FER) to 18 months. Currently, it takes around 5-7 years to receive FER for a
patent application. Similarly, for trademark applications, examination time was
13 months which is now reduced to 8 months and it is aimed to further reduce
the same to 1 month.
In order to achieve the
desired outcome, the government has taken up many steps such as- hiring more
examiners, fixing monthly, quarterly, half-yearly, annual benchmarks. The
Government has currently 130 examiners of patents and designs and hired 458 new
examiners. Also it in the process of hiring 263 examiners on contract.
Further in regard to
“Start-up India”, the Patent Rules are being amended to facilitate
fast-tracking examination of patent application by Start-ups and 80 lawyers are
finalized who would provide free consultation and legal advice to start-ups.
Source:
http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2016-04-25/news/72598687_1_patent-applications-examination-trademarks
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