Mr Amitabh Kant, Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, recently inaugurated a new building that is to be used by the Intellectual Property Office. Built at a cost of nearly Rs. 30 crore, the building is said to be equipped to deal with the operations of the Patent Office as an International Searching Authority (ISA) and International Preliminary Examining Authority (IPEA) under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), Business Standard reports.
A new payment gateway integrated into the e-filing system was also inaugurated that provides for payment by internet banking debit cards etc., of over 70 banks as opposed to the earlier permissible 2 banks. This would cover the entire series of forms and payments that are to be made at the IP Office for patents and trademarks.
The IP Office also introduced a system called the ‘Stack and Flow’ which tracks the progress of the work happening in the Patent office and can be viewed on the website. The IPO has the distinction of being the first office in the world with such a system. This appears to be a huge boost for transparency in the working of the Patent Office as the process is now freely traceable.
These are some extremely good initiatives that the IPO has put up. Here’s hoping that they achieve their desired ends.
Congratulations to Indian IP office to introduce “Stack and Flow’ , a transparent system to follow up patent Applications. I hope that the new office will bring down the time of processing patent applications. Also , the time of granting a patent can be reduced by recruiting more patent examiners and also using the services of patent specialists in various domains, available in the country. A panel of patent specialists in various domains may be created and the services of these experts can be utilized to speed up the clearing process of pending patent applications.
Dr.S.Rama murthy,Professor & Head IP, Jain University, Bangalore
Dr. Murthy,
Thank you for your comment.
That is indeed a valuable suggestion that the Patent Office can implement. Let’s hope that they are paying heed.