Insights from the Indian Patent Office Annual Report 2017-18

• 47, 854 applications filed as compared to 45,444 last year exhibiting an increase of 5.3%.
• Domestic filings increased from 29.2% last year to 32.5%. 15,550 applications were filed by Indian Applicants as compared to 13,219 applications last year, showing an increase of 18%.
• In the field of Information Technology, WIPRO Limited secured the first place followed by Tata Consultancy Services. In the domain of Scientific and Research & Development Organizations, CSIR topped the rank followed by DRDO.
• 32, 304 applications were filed by foreign applicants. Qualcomm Incorporated topped the list followed by Koninklijke Philips N.V.

Examination

• Number of patent applications examined tremendously increased to more than double the applications in the last year i.e. by 108.2%.
Grant and Disposal
• 13, 045 patents granted as compared to 9,847 granted last year, showing an increase of 32.5%.
• Disposal of applications increased by 57.6%. 47,695 applications were disposed of as compared to 30,271 applications last year.
• 56,764 patents are in force. 46,618 statements on working patents were received out of which 12,246 were reported as working.

Working of the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT)

The Indian Patent Office as ISA/IPEA has met 99% timelines in issuing International Search Reports (ISRs) under PCT. The timelines in sending Record Copies to the International Bureau of WIPO within the prescribed time limit of 4 weeks from the International Filing Date has also improved remarkably from 66% last year to 96% this year.

Electronic payment gateway for PCT application fees was introduced to avoid delay in transmission of fees for PCT applications to International Bureau and International Searching Authorities.

U.S. topped the ranking of the countries using PCT route for India followed by Japan and Germany.

B. TRADEMARKS

Filing

• Online filing increased to 86%.
• Class 5 (pharmaceuticals, veterinary and sanitary substances etc.) applications once again topped the rank with 13.93% share in overall filing, followed by Class 35 (Advertising, business management and related services) applications with 9.73% share in overall filing.
• The filing trend, however, dipped marginally with 2, 72,974 applications filed as compared to 2, 78,170 applications last year.
• Out of 2, 72,974 applications filed this year, 25,307 were filed by foreign applicants. United States topped the list of foreign applicants followed by China.

Examination and Publication

• The pendency of examination of trademark applications has continued to be less than 1 month.
• Procedural reforms in examination have resulted in increased acceptance of trademark applications from less than 10% to about 46% at the initial stage.
• 4, 23,030 applications published as compared to 333,673 publications last year.

Registration and Disposal

• 20.3% increase in issuance of trademark registrations. Over 3, 00,000 trademarks have been registered as compared to 2, 50,070 registrations last year.
• 5, 55,777 applications disposed of as compared to 2, 90,444 applications last year, augmenting the overall percentage by 91.4%.

Working of the Madrid Protocol

WIPO notified 47,263 international registrations to TMO in the year 2017-18, and TMO communicated 26,883 provisional refusals based on examination and 833 provisional refusal based on third party oppositions to the WIPO. The Grant of Protection was issued in respect of 16, 925 marks under international registration.

The TMO received 841 Indian origin applications for international registration, out of which 751 applications were verified certified and forwarded to the WIPO. Out of these applications, 562 marks were registered at the level of the WIPO.

Details of Opposition/Rectification Applications Filed at Various Offices in the Year 2017-18