India has upgraded Electronic filing facility of patents which was launched 5 years ago. The Indian Patent Office (IPO) first launched the e-filing services for patents in the year 2007 which enabled online filing of new applications for patents. The service is successfully being used by stakeholders. Appreciating the significance, the IPO has further developed the system so as to cover comprehensive e-filing for patents, wherein, in addition to online filing of new applications, subsequent filings have also been integrated. On March 7th 2014, another upgrade was made by the IPO for some more facilities through the e-filing system. The IPO has added Comprehensive e-filing services to provide facilities for online filing entries of Schedule 1 of Patents (Amendment) Rules 2014.
Form 16-Application for Registration of title/ Interest in a patent or share in it or Registration of any document purporting to affect proprietorship of the patent (Entry No. 25 of Fee Schedule).
Entry No. 41 of Fee Schedule provides Request for Certified copies.
Entry No. 42 of Fee Schedule provides Certifying office copies.
Entry No. 44 of Fee Schedule provides Request for information u/s 153.
Entry No. 49 of Fee Schedule provides Preparation of certified copy of priority document and for transmission of the same to IB of WIPO.
The first provision i.e., Form 16 relates to any assignment, transmission, mortgage or licensing of a patent which allows a person any claim in the patent. The IPO has replaced Form 16 with element under Entry No. 25 of the Fee schedule. Entry No. 25 deals with the fee for requesting change in name, address, nationality or address for service for a patent which in no way affects the proprietorship of the patent in any manner. Now it looks like the change of Form 16 which affects any claim to a patent, would have to be filed through paper filing which then means an additional fee.
In the fourth provision, section 153 provides the information relating to patents under the Indian Patent Act. It pertains to procedures relating to information regarding the patents or patent applications. This could be useful for oppositions or litigation purpose. All other elements are easy, simple and regarding obtaining certified copies of various documents which yet again include litigation or other administrative requirements.
