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Over 12,000 food, pharma patents pending test; Delhi accounts for half
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Tuesday, 14 August, 2012, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Our Bureau, Mumbai
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fiogf49gjkf0d As on December 31, 2011, 12,690 applications seeking patent for food products, medicines and pharmaceutical inventions were pending with the Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs & Trade Marks (O/o CGPDTM).
Delhi, with 6,386 patents pending, leads the way followed by Mumbai - a distant second with 2,669. Kolkata and Chennai account for 1,862 and 1,773 pending patents respectively.
The details of these applications are available on the official website of the O/o CGPDTM (www.ipindia@nic.in).
During the last three years, i.e. between 2009 and 2011, 94 patents were granted to food products and 1,810 patents were granted for medicines and pharmaceutical inventions in the same period. The details in respect of patents granted to food products and medicines and pharmaceutical inventions in the last three years are also available on the official website of the O/o CGPDTM.
Grant of patent is a quasi-judicial process and tends to be time-consuming as it involves various steps, inter alia, publication of the application, filing of requests for examination, examination of the application and disposal of any pre-grant oppositions filed. In addition, substantive increase in filing of patent application by more than 250 per cent in the last ten years as also the relative shortage of patent examiners have been the other reasons for increase in pendency.
The Government has completed the process of selection of 248 patent examiners. Of these, as on April 30, 2012, 135 have joined. At present, all essential steps involved in the processing of patent applications are carried out through electronic module, which has been an important factor in imparting accuracy, efficiency and transparency to the patent examination system and in avoiding delays in carrying out the process steps.
This information was given by the Minister of State for Commerce & Industry, Jyotiraditya M Scindia, in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha.
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