Conference At Chartered Institute Of Patent Attorneys (CIPA)

CIPA conference was organized at ITC Maurya in New Delhi on 15^th November, 2018. The conference related to the Intellectual Property Rights and promoted IP practices in United Kingdom (UK), more particularly Patent, Trademark, Designs and Copyright. The delegates from UK shared their experiences and detailed the general practices followed for grant in UK. After the session got over around 5pm at ITC Maurya, all delegates were taken to British High Commissioner’s residence in New Delhi for one to one discussion accompanying drinks and snacks.

At the outset of the Conference, the Chairman, International Liaison Committee introduced the speakers, who were expert in various field of IP Laws. He further enlightened the delegates with highlighting that Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA) is agroup of over 2400 Chartered Patent Attorneys in UK qualified to act before European Patent Office (EPO).

The Chairman observed following points as to why the Indian law firms should choose UK IPO for filing applications:

• Each year around 40,000 European patents applications are filed by the UK’s European patent attorneys, out of which nearly 90% are from overseas clients showing the international interest and scope in U.K.
• UK Chartered Patent Attorneys are one fifth of currently practicing all European Patent Attorneys and they file almost one third of total European Patent applications.
• IN EPO, it’s comparatively tuff to get through for computer program applications due to patentability objection thereby narrowing the chances of getting grant. Comparatively, UK law interprets the exclusion to patentability for computer programs broadly.
• While many aspects of UK and European law will be affected by the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, patent work will continue unchanged.
• Well qualified and experienced IP professionals in UK.
• English being the language of communication makes interpretation and business easy.
• Using the speedy procedures in UK for the grant, registration of rights and the resolution of disputes provide significant additional value by achieving early outcomes.
• Highly advanced and sophisticated national IP environment.
• Availability of competent, reputed and specialized judges (including their technical backgrounds), the consistency, reliability and ease of predicting decisions in other jurisdictions is another important feature.

Various other attorneys shared their experiences on Patent searching, novelty, inventive step to the objections faced during prosecution in comparison with EPO and US practices etc. Among other, the session regarding Artificial Intelligence (AI) by Mr. Saiful Khan was an eye opener about the present scenarios about upcoming automation world. He highlighted AI patents and the role that AI would play in day to day life. The use of AI would omnipresent in everything from home automation to transportation, communication, healthcare, education industries etc. He pointed on the need of developing an IP law that should focus on AI around the Globe. The UK Attorney’s covered almost all areas of technology from pharmaceutical, chemical, biotechnology, biopharma, biology, electrical, electronics, software, communication etc in Patents. Various case laws were discussed that made a mark in the history of UK Laws and IP practices.

CIPA also took a small session on Designs explaining the need of design registration, the common practices followed around different jurisdictions, process and timelines. The last session was a quick go through about trademark practices, procedure of filing and the timeline that need to be followed.

CIPA also conduct a get together for all the delegates at British High Commissioner’s residence which provided an opportunity to interact with the CIPA members and other delegates and exchange views on various issues relating to IP Laws. In such social event, speakers of CIPA, was startled to know the initiatives taken up by Indian Government on National Intellectual Property Rights policy, startup India initiative, Make in India and other such policies about promoting startups and small scale industries, had a direct impact on the increase in number of Patent filing in India.

The take away from CIPA session were the announcements made by WIPO delegate about:

• India is leading the world in filing Information and Communication Technology (ICT) patent applications.
• UK is at 4^th position in WIPO list for filing software applications.
• India has jumped 3 ranks up in WIPO list for filing patent applications around the world.

It was a wonderful opportunity and a great learning experience that will be cherished always and would like to be part of the same in future as well.