Make the Most of Dynamic Patent Utilities from Indian Patent Office (IPO)

This article discusses at length the importance of each dynamic patent utility from IPO so that each reader can make the most out of it. The order in which they are discussed does not signify anything and has been discussed in random order.

1. RQ status of issued FERs

Utilization:

Indian Patent Office examines the patent applications in the order in which request for examination was filed. There is no provision for requests for early examination under Indian Patent laws. ‘RQ status of issued FERs’ utility lets one know the month and year of the request for examination for which FER is being issued. This facility covers all the four patent offices i.e. Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai. Further for each location, status can be obtained for all four examination groups i.e. Electrical/Electronics, Biotechnology, Chemistry, and Mechanical. If FER is not received for the RQ that are 3 months prior to currently displayed month & year of any group for any location, one can submit grievance stating the Application number, RQ number, RQ Date, and other particulars at the message board which can be accessed at the hyperlink provided. Any discrepancy may be notified to the respective Patent Office on the following Email Addresses: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], and [email protected].

2. Dynamic FER View

Utilization:

This utility enables one to understand FERs being issued for any given month from the year 2013. This utility gives the output of each of the four examination groups for any of the four patent offices in India. The output given by this utility dynamic and actual output should be referred to in RFD documents published by Indian Patent Office. Any discrepancy may be notified to the respective Patent Office on the following Email Addresses: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], and [email protected].

Utilization:

This dynamic utility gives information on the working on patented information on a commercial scale in India as required to be furnished by the patentee or licensee U/S 146 of the Indian Patents Act, 1970. This information is required to be furnished in accordance with section 146 of the Indian Patents Act, 1970, and rules under patent rules, 2003. This utility provides data for the years 2012 and 2013. One can search for the data by submitting either the patent number or application number or name of the patentee. One can also choose to see complete data for any of the four patent offices. A note has to be taken here that data under processing may not appear here. Any discrepancy may be notified to the respective Patent Office on the following Email Addresses: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], and [email protected].

4. Disposal of Patent Applications

Utilization:

One can use this utility to get a number of patent applications granted, refused, or abandoned under section 21 (1) for each examination group for any of the four patent offices for any month starting from April of the year 2012 to December of the year 2015. With this utility, one can also understand the disposal of patent applications between two dates starting from April 01, 2012. The output given by this utility dynamic and actual output should be referred in RFD documents published by Indian Patent Office. Any discrepancy may be notified to the respective Patent Office on the following Email Addresses: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], and [email protected].

5. Expired Patents

Utilization:

With this utility, one can search for the patents for which term has been expired. One can also search for the expired patents separated according to the field of the invention available in the dropdown list. One can also search for patents that have been ceased due to non-payment of renewal fees with or without selecting the field of invention from the dropdown list. The list may be updated on the restoration of lapsed/ceased patents. One can also search for the status by patent number or title of the invention. It is to be noted that this utility does not provide legal status and actual status needs to be confirmed from the respective patent office. The list is dynamic and subject to the digitization status of patents. This utility can be used to understand which inventions can be used publicly without infringement. Any discrepancy may be notified to the respective Patent Office on the following Email Addresses: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], and [email protected].

6. Stock and Flow of Patents

Utilization:

This utility allows one to understand stock and flow for the current month or even date-wise also. This gives an idea about inflow to and outflow from publication stock, allotment stock, examiner’s stock, controller’s FER stock, controller’s disposal stock, patent register stock. The data made available is dynamic in nature and subject to the digitization of records, availability of backlog records in the proper format, and network traffic. Any discrepancy may be notified to the respective Patent Office on the following Email Addresses: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], and [email protected].

7. Dynamic Status of Patent Applications as per the field of the invention

Utilization:

We are not being able to access this utility due to an unidentified problem. We shall be updating this article with information on this utility sooner we are able to access the same.

The information provided in this article is subject to change as IPO updates its data so dates provided may change and may not hold true depending on the date of access to the article.

As all the above utilities are available free of cost, applicants and agents can make the most out of it. In the coming time, we expect more utilities from the Indian Patent Office especially in light of the more and more steps being taken from the government these days to improvise the Indian IP system.

Happy Reading!!!

About the Author: Swapnil Patil, Patent Associate at Khurana & Khurana, Advocates and IP Attorneys and can be reached at [email protected].