The office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trademarks (CGPDTM) has released two new notifications regarding updates to the office manuals. Yesterday, the office invited comments and suggestions from stakeholders on the Draft Manual of Patent Office (Practice & Procedure), 2026, to be submitted within the next 30 days. Today, the office has invited suggestions on the Draft Manual of Trademark Office (Practice & Procedure), 2026, but within a lesser window of the next 15 days.
Comments on the draft manuals can be forwarded to cgoffice[dot]in[at]gov[dot]in and llc[dash]ipo[at]gov[dot]in
Efforts at this substantive overhaul exercise had begun in 2023. The existing Patent Office Manual dates to 2019, and the Trademark Office Manual has been long overdue for updates since 2015.
Major changes in the Patent Office Manual relate to the formal incorporation of provisions of the Patents (Amendment) Rules, 2024; the Jan Viswas Act, 2023; the Shanti Act, 2025; references to the Guidelines for Examination of Computer-related Inventions, 2025 (CRI Guidelines) and recent case laws. Automation of office protocols, IT enablement and electronic processing of patent applications continue to be in focus. In related news, the CG office has also very recently released the Guidelines for the Use of Artificial Intelligence in Patent Examination Procedures.
The Draft Manual of Trade Marks incorporates the Trade Mark Rules, 2017; modernises the trademark filing workflow by formally digitising several of the protocols; includes references to recent case laws; expands on the procedure related to oppositions; and adds a new chapter 7 on ‘concept of claiming prior user and well-known marks’.
Both sets of updates undertake standardisation exercises that have a direct impact on stakeholders. For convenience, here are the links again –
