Criticism
As per An Indian patent Attorney in a Leading IP magazine, patents which were beyond the Act were granted by the Office. The Indian Patent office seems to have unusually high grant rate (refer to page 14 of the patent office annual report for the year 2005-06 in respect of numbers of refused patent applications), compared to other major patent Offices (EPO annual report for 2006, p22), and indicates the complete failure of the "well established" quality assurance systems covering the patent granting procedures. The reason behind this is attributed to the fact that a majority of patent applications filed in India are PCT National Phase cases which have an International Search/Examination report. Therefore it is easy for Controllers to decide on granting a patent for the application.This is not the case in well established Patent offices of developed countries where a majority of the applications are local(ordinary) applications. Here a search has to be carried out and based on the documents recovered during this search, the final outcome of the application is decided. Hence there can be no comparison with the number of cases examined and granted in India and abroad. Further, the monthly target for Indian examiners is 16 new applications per month (in addition to amended applications and other responsibilities) as compared to a maximum of 5 abroad. More importantly, the Indian Patent Office strictly has only 12 months to grant/refuse the application as compared to foreign patent offices where applicants can extend the final date indefinitely.
Knowledge commission, an Indian govt appointed body has recommended measures regarding the functioning of the Office. However these recommendations have not been implemented till date.
Recently the patent grant of a pharma drug has attracted attention. It should also be noted that the Patent office has not come up with final guidelines (Manual of Patent Practice and Procedure). It is unclear whether the patent office is still revising its draft manual which is kept for public inspection since 2005. A Delhi high court judgment has found that the Indian Patent Office has followed a lowered inventive step criterion (TSM method)in respect of a cancer drug patent.
The patent office is also not enforcing the rules and regulation mentioned in the act.
The rules are un-clear and there is no fixed action stated. The word "shall" is been used as a protection shield by the Patent office and has never published any of the application within one month from the date of request or expiry of said period. This is one of the examples, many more can be listed. It seems to be that Patent Office is biased.
Generally, the time taken by the Indian Patent Office (IPO) to grant a patent is around 3–4 years from the date of first filing. US Attorneys are behind USPTO to reduce the 2 years period taken by the USPTO.
A very constructive criticism and subsequent evidences of corruption, bribery, nepotism and the use of extra-Constitutional authority of power by a set of coterie-driven officials led by senior officials of the Indian patent office have emerged from Dr. Arijit Bhattacharya, a former Controller of the Kolkata Patent Office.
Read more about this topic: Indian Patent Office
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