On February 28, 2014, Friday; Ministry of Commerce and Industry (Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion) declared revised fee structure for filing and prosecution of patents by notification in Part II, Section 3, Sub-Section (i) of the Gazette Of India, Extraordinary and has been made effective from the date of publication. Earlier DIPP had published fee hike proposal and asked for suggestions and observation from the public for proposed amendments.
The main feature of revised fee structure includes fee hike for filing of patent application as well as other proceedings before the Patent Office in the First as well as Fourth Schedule of the amended rules. For an office which is supposed to be dealing with cutting-edge technology lesser fees for E-filing system would create a good embrace with easy handling of applications both by applicants and patent office.
Spot light of the notification is debut of third category of applicant in the form of “SMALL ENTITY” and the fees charged to them has been fixed in between the fees for a natural person and for all persons other than natural persons (except a small entity). The criteria for “small entity” have been also elaborated as per the clause (a) and (b) of sub-section (1) of section 7 of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Act, 2006 (27 of 2006) which reads as follows;
The criteria for Small Entity are as follows:
Manufacturing Sector |
Small Entity |
**Investment in plant & machinery |
More than Five Crore rupees but does not exceed ten crore rupees |
Service Sector |
Small Entity |
**Investment in equipments |
More than Two crore rupees but does not exceed five crore rupees |
** In calculating the investment in plant and machinery, the cost of pollution control, research and development, industrial safety devices and such other things as may be specified by notification under the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Act 2006 (27 of 2006), shall be excluded.
**The reference rates of foreign currency of the Reserve Bank of India shall prevail.
Supplement to this every application made by small entity need to submit Form-28 which is also newly introduced. For subsequent documents for which a fee has been specified and for which the fee applicable for a small entity is claimed, it should be ensured that Form-28 is filed at-least once against the application number. Resulting to this specific benefit, small entities highlights the centrality of intellectual property, its management and its exploitation in commercial success and provides practical assistance to all levels in the company or organization.
In addition if the application for patent and other documents are filed through physical mode i.e. in hard copy format 10% additional fees would be charged.
Apart from this amendment has also included Form 7-A for filing a pre-grant opposition under section 25(1) which was previously filed in form of a petition by anyone who wanted to oppose the grant of any particular patent application.
In the end this fees hike is seen as source of revenue generation to fulfill the Indian Government’s commitment to enhancing the performance of Indian Patent Office.
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