Monday 9 May 2016

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.

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