After a significant debate on this blog on the shortage of examiners at the Patent Office, the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Ministry of Industry and Commerce has released an elegantly well drafted 46 pages notification inviting applications for the posts of Examiners at the Patent Office. (No surprise they took two years to come out with this – 46 pages!!!) In its notification the DIPP has announced a sector-specific intake and has announced the vacancies for each sector i.e. Chemical, Electronics etc. Also special preference will be given to candidates with a law degree or a certificate course in a foreign language or research experience. The pay bracket is between Rs. 15,000 to Rs. 39,000 and this is comparable to some of the best IP law firms in India, with of course the added bonus of job security and weekends off. The Department will be holding two examinations, a preliminary examination and a main examination both of which promise to be rigorous, with the preliminary examination carrying a pretty stiff penalty of 33%. The syllabus for the examination has been laid out in painful detail. All in all I must say the gentlemen at the DIPP have put in a lot of effort in coming out with this elaborate scheme to select examiners – may the best person win!
About The Author
Prashant Reddy
T. Prashant Reddy graduated from the National Law School of India University, Bangalore, with a B.A.LLB (Hons.) degree in 2008. He later graduated with a LLM degree (Law, Science & Technology) from the Stanford Law School in 2013. Prashant has worked with law firms in Delhi and in academia in India and Singapore. He is also co-author of the book Create, Copy, Disrupt: India's Intellectual Property Dilemmas (OUP).
Thanks Prashant.
Off the track, but any idea as to how to calculate the take home pay. I dont know how to understand this pay structure.
Thanks in advance again.
It is not a permanent posts as you had mentioned as ‘bonus of job security.’ But, probably they will be made regularised after certain period.
“Bourne Ultimatum”
The post may be temporary.It will be under new pension scheme as all Central govt employees who joined after 2004 are under new pension scheme.
total pay =A +B +C+D
A=15000 (basic pay) +5400(grade pay)
b= inflation linked dearness allowance( m* A ,m is .45 or 45% at present )
C=HRA (0.33*A ..0.33 is fixed )
D=Travel Allowance (1+m)*3200
i.e a starter gets around 40000
annual increment will be 3% of A
“The pay bracket is between Rs. 15,000 to Rs. 39,000 and this is comparable to some of the best IP law firms in India, with of course the added bonus of job security and weekends off”.
But this salary would remain more or less static till next pay commission.Salary Increment every year amounts to a meagre Rs.850.This is peanuts compared to what their counterparts in the private sector get. Also, there is no indication of assured promotions(FCS-Flexible Complementation System) or career progression in the advertisement. A reasonable prediction would be as follows: There would be a humongous number of applications. Many excellent candidates would be selected. Brilliant ones(especially those joining on merit from premier institutes like IITs etc) among them would leave for better options after 2 years max. The remaining ones would be no different from the current crop of Examiners/controllers existing now.The onus should be on retaining meritorious candidates apart from selecting them.
Prashant is right. The ad is elegant and well drafted because the patent office was not involved in the drafting!!!
Desirable qualification: Degree in law or “Equivalent”??
“EQUIVALENT” is not clear. Whether it includes PG Diloma in Patent law or in IPR?
Anon (1.13 PM) has written “current crop of Examiners/controllers existing now”…. dear do u have any experience of this..or u r playing with words in air..if u realy have any experince then come up clearly… that will be a welcome step..otherwise plz………
@ Anon (11:08 PM):”current crop of Examiners/controllers existing now” means the substandard group which has ruined the patent office. Especially the batch which was recently promoted as controllers and was not selected through free and fair procedure. Recruitment experts like EDCIL were not involved. Their recruitment was done in-house by the branch offices themselves. In many offices, relatives and friends were selected. Most of them have political or influential connections.Their standard is evident when asked to write a paragraph in English. Less said about their spoken English ability, the better.They are still using their powerful connections to thwart the efforts of the CG to discipline them. If required kindly give me your email id I can give you names.
anon (11.08 PM) my mail ID is [email protected]
You can forward the information on this…
There are more than 70000 applications pending now. Even if 257 examiners join and the total strength adds up to 327 examiners, at the rate of 10 applications p.m per head, they can clear only 39240 applications annually. Which is only half the pendency. The patent office should have a long term vision to address such issues.It should have a policy of regular need-based recruitment and more flexible work conditions instead of working like a typical government office.
Hi ,
This examination doesnot have pharmacy syllabus???????????
Most of the patent issues are linked in pharmaceuticals
Chemistry is the part of pharmacy syllabus where they know basics but not in deep
for engineering they are having specific syllabus whynot for pharmacy
hey can we have an analysis on the arindam chaudhri case please? the mainstream media has blacked out the story and the blogosphere is our only hope