Draft Patents (Amendment) Rules, 2021

The Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MCI) on 09th February 2021 had issued the Draft Patents (Amendment) Rules, 2021 in order to further amend the Patents Rules, 2003. 

The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade through a notification has also notified that any objections or suggestions to the same, must be sent by e-mail within 30 days of publication of draft rules.

The amendment had stated that in case an application relating to patent has been processed by a natural person, start-up, small organization, or eligible educational institution is fully or partly transferred towards an individual other than a natural person, start-up, small organization, or eligible educational institution, the difference, if any, in the scale of fees amongst the fees that was been charged from the natural person, start-up, small organization or eligible educational institution and the fees chargeable from the individual other than a natural person, start-up, small organization or eligible educational institution, shall be paid through the new applicant together with the request for transfer. The amendment has been made towards preventing the evasion of payment of application fee in the event of any transfer of applicant status.

The following amendments which were made are stated below: 

• Rule 2 (ca), which specified the definitions, was inserted, namely: 

“eligible educational institution' which implies an institution established by a Central, Provincial or State Act, which is been owned or it is been controlled by the Government and is wholly or substantially financed through the Government.”

• Rule 7 (3), which specified the processing of an application, was substituted, namely: 

If an application processed by a natural person, start-up, small entity, or eligible educational institution is fully or partly transferred towards an individual other than a natural person, start-up, small organization, or eligible educational institution is fully or partly transferred towards an individual other than a natural person, start-up, small organization or eligible educational institution, the difference, if any, in the scale of fees amongst the fees that was been charged from the natural person, start-up, small organization or eligible educational institution and the fees chargeable from the individual other than a natural person, start-up, small organization or eligible educational institution, shall be paid through the new applicant together with the request for transfer.

• First Schedule, which specified the filing for a patent, was substituted.

All individuals likely to be affected thus, and notice is hereby given that the said draft rules would be taken into consideration after the expiry of a period of 30 days from the date on which copies of the Gazette of India, in which this notification has been published, are made available to the public; If any objections or suggestions, is made that must be addressed to the Secretary, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India, Udyog Bhawan, New Delhi- 110011 or by sending an e-mail at sachin.d@gov.in. The objections and suggestions, which might be received from any individual regarding the said draft rules before the expiry of the period so stated, would be considered by the Central Government.

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Author:

eStartIndia Team