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Views on Patents Views on Patents in IndiaBy

N.Ramchander,N.Ramchander,EXAMINER OF PATENTS AND DESIGNSEXAMINER OF PATENTS AND DESIGNS

Patent Office, MumbaiPatent Office, MumbaiGovt. of IndiaGovt. of India

HISTORY OF INDIAN PATENT SYSTEM

1856 THE ACT VI OF 1856 ON PROTECTION OF INVENTIONS BASED ON THE BRITISH PATENT LAW OF 1852. CERTAIN EXCLUSIVE PRIVILEGES GRANTED TO INVENTORS OF NEW MANUFACTURERS FOR A PERIOD OF 14 YEARS.

1859 THE ACT MODIFIED AS ACT XV; PATENT MONOPOLIES CALLED EXCLUSIVE PRIVILEGES (MAKING. SELLING AND USING INVENTIONS IN INDIA AND AUTHORIZING OTHERS TO DO SO FOR 14 YEARS FROM DATE OF FILING SPECIFICATION).

1872 THE PATENTS & DESIGNS PROTECTION ACT.

1883 THE PROTECTION OF INVENTIONS ACT.

1888 CONSOLIDATED AS THE INVENTIONS & DESIGNS ACT.

1911 THE INDIAN PATENTS & DESIGNS ACT.

1972 THE PATENTS ACT (ACT 39 OF 1970) CAME INTO FORCE ON 20TH APRIL 1972.

1999 ON MARCH 26, 1999 PATENTS (AMENDMENT) ACT, (1999) CAME INTO FORCE FROM 01-01-1995.

2002 THE PATENTS (AMENDMENT) ACT 2002 CAME INTO FORCE FROM 2OTH MAY 2003

2005 ON 1ST JANUARY 2005, THIS AMENDEMNET HAS REPLACED THE EARLIER PATENTS ( Amendment ) Ordinance, 2004.

Trends towards globalization

                  The revival of the Indian Economy and globalization of markets have thrown open a new market,

                  Emerged opportunities in the IPR field (developed nations have generated wealth from IPR over last several decades), now the new patent regime has become a strong driving force to transform India into an IP superpower as technological innovation by healthy IPR protection, and the strong patent regime is a key driving force for FDI in India., therefore the 3rd Amendments to the Patent Act 1970, introduced product patenting in pharmaceuticals, food and chemicals effective from 1st January, 2005, which rationalized and reduced the time line for processing of patent applications, and less time consuming in grant of a patents creation of international standard infrastructure supported the effective maneuver of the set targets. 

HIGH LIGHTS OF THE PATENTS (AMENDMENT ) ACT,2005

• New definitions added, such as on Budapest treaty, opposition Board, new invention and inventive step, etc,

• Section 3(d) modified to exclude patentability of mere discovery of a new form of a known substance,

• Section 5 omitted, product patent on chemicals, food drugs or agrochemicals become available, one of the main provision for which these amendments were necessary under the TRIPS Agreement,

• Section 7 modified clarify the filling date of a national phase application through PCT route,

• Under Section 10 (4) (ii) reference of Budapest Treaty given for depositing of biological materials in an international depository authority,

• An applicants request publication of application at any time but before 18 months permitted (this opens up possibility for early examination and early grant)

HIGH LIGHTS OF THE PATENTS (AMENDMENT ) ACT,2005

• Chapter 1V (Section 24 A to 24 F) relating to EMR omitted,• Pre-grant opposition can be lodged after the publication under Section

25(1),• Post-grant opposition possible upto one year from the date of grant• Under Section 39 further modified to require permission for its filing

abroad for all kinds of inventions,• Provision of Sealing removed, patents would be granted directly if

found in order,• Notification / Advertisement in the Gazette replaced by publication in

Official Journal,• Passing qualifying examination for registration as patent agents for the

advocates also has become necessary,• Scope of convention countries modified when group of countries union

of countries or inter – governmental organisation included,

Trend of patent applications in India.

• Yearly trend in patent applications

1999-2000 2000-2001 2001-2002 2002-2003 2003-2004 2004-2005

Filed 4824 8503 10592 11466 12613 17466

Examind 2824 4264 5104 9538 10709 14814

Granted 1881 1318 1591 1379 2469 1911

The number of applications for the patents filed in 2004 – 2005 were 17466 is about 28% increases over 2003 – 2004 (12613)

• State/UT No.of Ordinary No.of Convention No.of NP Applications Applications Applications

2004-05 2003-04 2004-05 2003-04 2004-05 2003-04

• MH 1093 921 24 8 170 -

• Delhi 935 795 - - 168 -

• TN 397 330 - - - -

• WB 131 154 -- - -

• GUJ 179 289 - 1 - -

• KK 216 180 - - - -

• Kerala 79 88 - - - -

Patent applications classified according to state of origin for the year 2003-2004 and 2004 –05.

Patent applications classified according to state of origin for the year 2003-2004 and 2004 –05.

State/UT No. of Ordinary No. of Convention No. of NP Applications Applications Applications

2004-05 2003-04 2004-05 2003-04 2004-05 2003-04

• UP 72 126 - - 3 -• Haryana 48 45 - - 3 -• AP 254 222 - - - -• MP 45 29 2 - 1 -• Bihar 41 9 9 - - -• Punjab 27 27 - - - -• Rajastan 28 28 - - - -• Orissa 12 3 - - - -• Assam 6 9 - - - -

Patent applications classified according to state of origin for the year 2003-2004 and 2004 –05.

• State/UT No. of Ordinary No. of Convention No. of NP Applications Applications Applications

• 2004-05 2003-04 2004-05 2003-04 2004-05 2003-04

• Goa 2 5 - - - -• Pondichery 8 2 - - - -• HP 8 9 - - - -• J&K - 3 - - - -• Chandigar 9 7 - - - -• Jharkhand 3 21 - - - -• Meghalaya - - - - - -• Uttarakhand - 8 - - - -• UT Daman - 4 - - - -• Chattisgarh 5 4 - - - -• Total 3630 3218 26 9 345 -

NUMBER OF PATENT APPLICATIONS FILED DURING LAST FIVE YEARS FROM 2000-01 TO 2004-2005 UNDER VARIOUS FIELDS OF

INVENTIONS

2000-01 2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05

• Chemical 787 778 776 2952 3916• Drug 883 879 966 2525 2316• Food 96 110 119 123 190• Electrical 921 731 690 2125 1079• Mechanical 1106 1174 1257 2717 3304• Comp/Electro - --- - - 2787• Biotech 4 2 46 23 1214• General 546 569 562 2148 2659• Total 4339 4241 4416 12613 17466

• Excluding PCT National Phase Applications

COMPARATIVE TREND OF PATENTS GRANTED FROM 1995 TO 2005.

• 1995- 1996- 1997- 1998- 1999- 2000- 2001- 2002- 2003- 2004- 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002

2003 2004 2005.

Patents 1533 907 1844 1800 1881 1318 1591 1379 2469 1911

FILED AS NATIONAL PHASE APPLICATIONS THROUGH PCT ROUTE IN INDIA DURING THE YEAR 2000-2001 TO 2004-2005.

USA (4053) Germany (1292) France (671) Japan(626)

Netherlands(520) Switzerland(383 UK (370) Sweden(287)

Australia (280) Italy (169) Denmark (112) Korea (243)

Israel (133) Canada (241) Finland (121)Norway(55)

Belgium (64) Austria (52) etc,

THE APPLICATIONS UNDER SECTION 5(2) FOR DRUGS/PHARMACEUTICALS & AGROCHEMICALS – MAIL BOX CATEGORY,

Under the provision of section 5(2) introduced with effect from 1st January 1995 till 31st December 2004 i.e just before the removal of that provision under the present law, altogether 8926 applications were received. Said 8926 applications constituted of 3770 through PCT National phase route. Further out of the said total of 8926 applications 973 were in respect of agrochemicals and rest were from drugs and pharmaceuticals.

PCT INTERNATIONAL APPLICATIONS

India joined the Patent Cooperation Treaty on 7th December 1998

Statistics of filling PCT international applications for the last five years are given

Year individual legal entity Total

2000-01 45 129 174

2001-02 49 189 238

2002-03 57 227 284

2003-04 102 328 430

2004-05 105 351 456

Major contributions for the PCT international applications during this were CSIR, Sun Pharma, Jubiliant Organosys Ltd.,

TREND OF INVENTIONS,

Under different categories of inventions following trend has been noticed on the subjects of inventions as follow:

Chemicals & Chemical Technology

Inventions in this field comprised both organic & inorganic compounds of various uses, gel compositions, epoxy resins, fine chemicals and their intermediates, lubricants, fuel oil & detergents.

DRUGS

A ) PHARMCEUTICALS

Invention In this category mainly focused on treatment of central nervous system disorder, immunalogical disorders, enantiomerically pure compounds, resolution of mor effective form of molecules, cancer therapies, herbal composition of viral hepatitis antiviral agent plant composition, injectable formulations, skin treatment and antimalarial composition etc.,

2) AGROCHEMICALS

In this inventions were related to organic fertilizers, synthetic herbicidal compositions, pyrethroid and organo-phosphorous insecticides, herbicides based on substituted keoenols and safeners.

POLYMERS ,

Inventions in this field mainly relates to high friction polyurethane, elastomers having improved abrasion resistant, elastic thermoplastic graft, plastic thermoplastic graft , polyester carbonate, cellulose fibre, polyester films, rubber compositions & blends, foam , acryl containing polymer for marine coating and separation of polymers from solvent.

FOOD

Number of inventions in this field was very limited. Trend observed mainly on preparation of beverages concentrate based on fructo-oligosaccharides, beverages from red beet, custard apple powder, tomato flakes, flavouring agent

BIOTECHNOLOGY

Though inventions in this field were mostly of the foreign origin but there was considerable increase in Indian applications. Inventions were mostly in the field of recombinant DNA molecule, recombinant vaccine, monoclonal antibodies, and recombinant therapeutic molecules, diagnostic kits, stem cells, recombinant vectors, bioleaching, biotrans formation, biological treatment os waste, gene and somatic cell therapy, pluripotent stem cells derived from regenerative tissue, recombinant microbes expressing chimeric HIV protein, regulation of cell mediated immune response, recombinant interleukin IL – 18 inhibitors, plastid transformation vectors, biological treatment of waste water, conjugate vaccine against cholera and tetanus, peptide based immunotherapy for atherosclerosis mixed cell gene therapy, bone regeneration by gene therapy etc.,

MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

Most of the invention in this field were of foreign origin which were mainly related to hermetic compressor, suction muffler for compressor, reciprocating compressor, scooter type vehicle, cylinder head for internal combustion engine, transmission system, ignition system, cutting insert absorption refrigerator, augmenter pilot nozzle, rolling mill, biomass gasification system etc., On the other hand indigenous inventions were mainly related to CFBC boiler, stoker fired boiler, heat recovery steam generator, backward aerofoil bladed fan, split type hydro-generator, transonic blade, turbo generator etc.

ELECTRONICS

Inventions in this field were particularly related to improved emitter turn- off thyristors and their drive circuits, electron field emitter and compositions related thereto, light-emitting device including semiconductor nanocrystals, radio ripple control system and method for the operation of such system, logic device with reduced leakage current, electron light emitting road stud, etc,

COMPUTER

Applications were filed in the following areas of data storage media, data processing apparatus, map decoder and decoding method, secure transfer system for exchange of information, data and mail between public and private networks, method apparatus and program products for wireless access points, system and method for checking digital certificate status etc,

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