Question : PATENT OFFICES

(a) the details of Patent Offices functioning in the country as on date, location-wise;

(b) whether in view of the ever increasing innovative measures taken by the companies to establish themselves through their specialized products, faster need for patenting of these products have been felt;

(c) if so, whether many States, where patent offices are not established have requested the Union Government to establish patent offices in their respective State capitals;

(d) if so, the details thereof; and

(e) the steps taken by the Union Government to establish atleast a patent office in each State capital to enable Indian companies to face patent war?

THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY (DR. RAMAN SINGH)

(a) : Patent Offices are functioning in Kolkata (Head Office), Mumbai, Chennai and Delhi and have territorial jurisdiction.

(b) : Major legislative and administrative initiatives have been taken to revamp the intellectual property framework, including those relating to patents. Government has taken up comprehensive modernization of all its Patent offices. Additional staff having adequate technical qualifications has already been sanctioned to cater to the increasing work-load in Patent Offices. Further, comprehensive computerization of operations in the Patent Offices has also been undertaken in order to link up all the offices electronically, thereby enabling them to exchange information/data. A Manual of Patent Practice and Procedure has also been issued and put up on website to ensure uniformity and transparency in the procedure for grant of patents. The objective is to provide a modernized, responsive, efficient and user-friendly patent granting system.

(c ) to (e) : A request was received from the State Government of Karnataka for opening a patent office in Bangalore. It was noted that the filing of applications for patents from Karnataka was less than 2% of the total applications filed over the last five years and does not justify opening of a separate office in Bangalore. The modernisation initiatives in respect of the patent offices have been undertaken to develop them as IT enabled offices, to link up all the offices electronically and to provide the facility of filing patent applications on-line electronically thereby obviating the need for establishing patent offices at each State capital.