Indian comers and industry minister, Piyush Goyal, announced on Tuesday, August 17, an 80-per cent fee reduction to all recognized educational institutions applying for patents, whether located in India or abroad. the reduction before this announcement, cover only recognized governmental institutions.
According to his speech at a CII webinar on intellectual property, “This 80 percent fee reduction will now apply to all recognized educational institutions whether it is the government (owned), government-aided, or private institutions, irrespective of whether these institutions are situated in India or anywhere in the world,”
Goyal hopes this reduction work as a great incentive and educational institutions to participate either from India or even abroad!
The time of patent examination according to Gayol's speech has come down from 72 months in December 2016, to between 12-24 months in 2021 in case of objections (without any objections, this time reduced to even below 12 months). The number of patents granted has grown by 600 percent compared to seven years ago.
Further highlight from his speaking are as follow:
- The total fee - filing, publication, and renewal - for an institute will be reduced to Rs 84,900. ( at the moment is around Rs 4.24 lakh)
- Introducing more transparency in the system and ensure robust integrity in India's IPR systems.
- Providing 75 scholarships on the anniversary of India’s Independence, for students who are following IP laws, for those who are coming from economically weaker sections of the society. Institutions can do a matching scholarship, which could make it available for 150 students from economically weaker sections.
- · To ensure more transparency, the government will care about certification of grants and registration of trademarks being issued through email. The government may in the future anonymous all the applications that the IP office receives and then send them for examination to different offices, so that the persons who are examining do not know the identity of the person who has submitted the application for patent or trademark.
- Strengthening the IPR regime for future growth, in more areas such as geographical indication!
- A strong IPR regime will empower expansion and energize the industry in challenging times, bring intellectual property (IP) revolution for inclusive progress and strengthen intellectual property rights (IPR) laws in the country since these all are necessary to create more jobs, boost competitiveness and manufacturing.
According to Global Innovation Index 2020, India ranks 48th but the commerce and industry minister hopes by providing such facilities and supports, India break this rank and improve it in a way to be placed among the top 25.
