Indian Patent Office stakeholder meeting reveals exciting upcoming developments

Vidisha Garg participates in a stakeholder meeting organised by the Indian Patent Office on 12 September.

With the festive season being round corner, patent office has decided to gift the stakeholders with much awaited goodies in terms of initiatives such as new mobile app, alert system through SMS and tightening of the loopholes in the email systems and extending the video conferencing facility to the premises of the applicant.

Patent office, Delhi organized a stake holder’s meeting held on September 12, 2017 to discuss the initiatives taken by the patent office. The agenda of the meeting was as follows:

1. Mobile Apps of CGPDTM website;
2. Issues relating to receipt of reports on email;
3. Issues relating to video conferencing;
4. Introduction of SMS facility in communication.

The proposed mobile app aims to provide the details of the patents, trademark, design, copyright and geographical indications application. Said app is proposed to be launched by October.

By next month, the Patent office also plans to start the SMS facility for applicants. According to the office, applicants will receive alerts in respect of the upcoming due date, one week in advance. Also, the messages will be received by the applicant on filing of the new application, issuance of the examination reports, etc.

Another welcoming proposal is extending the video conferencing facility to the premises of the applicant. Currently, due to limited resources, the video conferencing facility is limited to the four patent offices and the applicant has to physically go to one of the patent office in order to have the video conferencing with the controller in other patent office. The patent office, now plans to do away with this cumbersome practice by installing video conferencing devices on computers of each controller. Also, the controller will provide the video conferencing link along with the hearing notice and applicant can easily connect with the Controller from their own offices.

Authored by Vidisha Garg.