Draft Patents (Amendment) Rules, 2021 published; Central Government introduces bill to abolish tribunals such as IPAB and 4 others; EPO Strategic Plan 2023 published; EPO member states agree on common practices under a joint initiative
Patent Office Updates
Draft Patents (Amendment) Rules, 2021 published
The Indian patent office has published the Draft Patents (Amendment) Rules, 2021 on the 9th of February 2021. The amended rules propose to reduce the filing fee of educational institutions and make them eligible for expedited examination.
The draft rules shall come into effect from the 9th of March 2021 and any objections / suggestions must be submitted to the government before this date.
Objections or suggestions, if any, may 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 e-mail at sachin.d@gov.in
Click here to view the official notification.
Indian Patent News
Central Government introduces bill to abolish tribunals such as IPAB and 4 others
Minister of State for Finance, Anurag Singh Thakur, last week proposed the “Tribunals Reforms (Rationalisation and Conditions of Service) Bill, 2021” which seeks to abolish certain tribunals and authorities such as the Intellectual Property Appellate Board, Plant Varieties Protection Appellate Tribunal and Appellate Tribunal under the Cinematograph Act among others. The bill aims to provide a mechanism for filing appeals directly to the commercial court or the High Court and transfer all cases pending before such tribunals or authorities to the Commercial Court or the High Court.
According to the bill, “analysis of data of the last three years has shown that tribunals in several sectors have not necessarily led to faster justice delivery and they are also at a considerable expense to the exchequer. The Hon’ble Supreme Court has deprecated the practice of tribunalisation of justice and filing of appeals directly from tribunals to the Supreme Court in many of its judgements, including S.P Sampath Kumar versus Union of India (1987) 1 SCC 124, L. Chandra Kumar versus Union of India (1997) 3 SCC 261, Roger Mathew versus South Indian Bank Limited (2020) 6 SCC 1 and Madras Bar Association versus Union of India and another (2020) SCC Online SC 962. Therefore, further streamlining of tribunals is considered necessary as it would save considerable expense to the exchequer and at the same time, lead to speedy delivery of justice. Accordingly, it is proposed to abolish some more tribunals and transfer the jurisdiction exercised by them to the High Court”
Click here to read the entire bill.
International Patent News
EPO Strategic Plan 2023 published
The European patent office has published a document titled EPO Strategic Plan 2023 which aims to provide a clear roadmap for achieving a new vision for the EPO distributed over five goals. It outlines the actions and initiatives to be taken and the improvements required to deliver sustainability and excellence. The document may be accessed from the EPO’s official website or by clicking here.
EPO member states agree on common practices under a joint initiative
In a move to align administrative practices between the EPO and Europe’s national IP offices more closely, EPO member states have agreed on common practices under a joint initiative. The first two common practices – in the areas of examination of unity of invention, and designation of the inventor – were endorsed by member states at a meeting of the organisation’s Administrative Council in December 2020.
To read the full news, click here.
News source: https://www.epo.org/news-events/news/2021/20210212a.html
