1.58 lakh patent applications pending for examination: Government

NEW DELHI: As many as 1.58 lakh patent applications are pending for examination before the government due to manpower shortage, Parliament was informed today.

Maximum number of applications are pending before the Delhi office (57,385) followed by Chennai (52,891), Kolkata (29,223) and Mumbai (18,950), Minister of State for Commerce and Industry EM Sudarsana Natchiappan said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

"As on August 13, 2013, 1,58,449 patent applications, where requests for examination have been filed, are pending with the Office of Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks, the Minister said.

The grant of patents is a quasi-judicial process and tends to be time-consuming as it involves various steps such as publication of the application, filing of requests for examination, examination of the application and disposals of any pre-grant opposition filed, Natchiappan added.

"in Addition, substantive increase in filing of patent applications in the last ten years and the relative shortage of patent examiners have been the other reasons for increase in pendency," he said.

However, the government has completed the process of selection of 248 patent examiners, the Minister said.

In another reply, he said that one application for compulsory licence was filed under section 84 of the Patents Act 1970 by a domestic drug company in March 2013.

Under the Indian Patents Act, a compulsory licence can be issued for a drug if the medicine is deemed unaffordable by the government and permission is granted to qualified generic drug-makers to manufacture it.

As per the WTO agreement, a compulsory licence can be invoked by the national government allowing a company to produce a patented product without the consent of the patent owner in public interest.

The Minister said that one compulsory licence has been granted since the amendment of the Patents Act 2005.