The new patent amendment rules bring a beneficial change in the fee structure for small-scale industries. The Indian Ministry of Commerce and Industry has issued notification of the Patent (amended) rules 2021.
In brief, the amendment mainly talks about the changes in fee structure where the small entity has been included in the fee structure of natural person and startup. It also talks about eligible criteria for education institutes for gaining benefit from expedite examination.
1. Fee structure for a small entity, that is, MSMEs or SMEs:
2. The recent amendment defines the eligibility criteria for education institutions to opt for expedite examination (FORM 18 A).
The amendment reads as “In rule 2 of the Patents Rules, 2003 (hereinafter referred to as the principal rules), after sub-rule (c), the following shall be substituted, namely:”(ca) ‘eligible educational institution’ means an institution established by a Central, Provincial or State Act, which is owned or controlled by the Government, and is wholly or substantially financed by the Government”
Additionally, the patent (amendment) rules notification makes it clear that;
- The applicant who claims for the eligibility of a small entity, or startup, or eligible educational institution every document for which a fee has been specified shall be accompanied by Form-28.
- In case an application processed by a natural person, startup, small entity, or eligible educational institution is fully or partly transferred to a person other than a natural person (legal entity), the difference, if any, in the scale of fees between the fees charged from the natural person, startup, small entity or eligible educational institution and the fees chargeable from the person other than a natural person (legal entity) shall be paid by the new applicant along with the request for transfer.
Further, the notification also specifies the documentary evidence that should be submitted for claiming the status of eligible education institute, that is;
“A. was established by a Central, Provincial or State Act, and
B. is owned or controlled by the Government, and is wholly or substantially financed by the Government.”
Furthermore, we would like to express that the recent amendment notification issued by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry in the patent rules is a boon to small entity where the modified fee structure paves the way to enjoy the protection of their invention and also add numerous valuable patents to their patent portfolio in an affordable way.
World Intellectual Property Day – April 26, 2021
IP & SMEs: Taking your ideas to market
Conclusively, we are happy to share that this year theme for World IP Day is “IP & SMEs: Taking your idea to Market” and at the same time the Indian Ministry of commerce and industry has also released the Patent (amendment) rules 2021 in favor of SMEs, this seems to be a good initiative to encourage the MSMEs or SMEs to protect their innovations, therefore we can expect most of the SMEs (small entities) will make use of this scheme and file more number of patent applications in the upcoming year compared to large corporates.
Published by
Preethi Narayanan, Vertical Head, IP