INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY OFFICE, INDIA.

ANNUAL REPORT (2009-10) AN ANALYSIS

Landscape Of Annual Report, 2009-10 Of Intellectual Property Office

Key Features of the Annual Report :

A phenomenal drop in patents filed, examined and granted which broke the positive trend of last 7 years. A growth of 14% in applications filed by Indians, compared to last year but still constitutes only 20% of total applications. A 9% growth in trademark filing but examination and grants reduced. A decrease in applications in designs and geographical indications. Total Revenue earned decreases by 5%. Modernization and streamlining of the Intellectual Property Office. Decrease in PCT as well as Convention applications, Top filing nation- USA. Working of patents under section 83- Only 4189 patents were shown to be commercially working out of 30,553 patents which were in force in the year 2009-2010 i.e. only 13.7% of all patents granted are actually being worked.

Trends In Patent And Trademarks From 2003 To 2010

Trends In Design Applications And Geographical Indications From 2005 To 2010

Reasons For The Downward Trend In Patents

One of the probable reasons mentioned in the report is the fact that the world economy has faced meltdown.

Crunch of Patent Examiners- 55 examiners left the organization during 2004-09 and no new recruitment took place and 47 examiners were promoted as Assistant Controllers in January 2009, thus not available for examination.

Closer2patents observation- Earlier annual reports showed a trend of more patents been granted despite shrinking number of examiners, (in 2006-07 7539 patents were granted with a workforce of 133 examiners and 33 assistant controllers, while in 2008-09 16061 patents were granted with a much lesser staff of 75 examiners and 70 assistant controllers.)

Measures To Reverse The Trend

Total electronic processing of patent applications introduced. Initial 5 months of 2009 spent on streamlining the process.

During the 11th plan, the Government of India has sanctioned further 414 posts for the Patents and Trademarks office for strengthening of human resources to achieve the enhanced targets.

The Patent Office have facilitated the general public to have web based interactive guidance for information and procedure for filing the patent applications from August 2008.

Modernization and streamlining measures taken may show a positive result eventually.

Patent Application Filing Trend In Different Domains

9000 8000 7000 6000 5000 4000 3000 2000 1000 0

The comparative bar chart beside shows a positive trend in domains of chemical, electrical, mechanical and computer/electronics.

2005-06

2006-07

2007-08

2008-09

2009-10

Percentage of patent applications filed in 2009-10 in various fields of inventions

Maximum patent applications in field of Mechanical followed by Chemical. The applications of other fields constitute 17% of total applications of which maximum were in Physics. Out of total granted patents 1024 were granted on applications relating to Mechanical, 1420 to chemicals, 530 to Drug or Medicines, 404 to Electrical and 72 to Food.
17% 3% 4% 9% 17% Chemical Drug Food Electrical Mechanical 1% 7% 22% 20% Computer/Electronics Biotechnology General Other fields

Modernization Of Intellectual Property Offices

Modernization of Infrastructure, Human Resource Development. Digitization of Records, Computerization and Automation of office procedure, Electronic filing of IP applications, Full electronic processing of design applications. Dissemination of information regarding processing and content of application through official website. Patent Office Procedure (POP) established, clearly demarcating the function and responsibilities of various sections and formation of 4 groups of examiners and controllers with broad specialization of subjects. Patent agent examination board introduced, to give more credibility to the exam. The principle of first come first served introduced for the first time in Trademark Registry.

Achievements According To The IPO

Online availability of register of patents, application status and patent information. Improved quality of examination of patent applications.

Elimination of the need to visit the IPO for obtaining information.

Online publication of Journal of Patents, Trademarks Journal, Indications. Journal of Geographical

Real time updating of information, removal of arbitrariness, reduction in complaints from stakeholders.

Money Talk
The office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trademarks Total revenue earned - Rs.215.25 crores, showing 5% decrease from previous year. Total non-plan expenditure- Rs.33.03 crores. Revenue surplus- Rs.182.22 crores.

Patent office Revenue- Rs. 142.61 crores. Expenditure- Rs. 21.87 crores. Trademark registry Revenue- Rs.71.6 crores Expenditure- Rs.8.94 crores. Patent offices in respect of Design Patents Revenue- Rs.0.91 crores.

Geographical Indications- Revenue- Rs. 0.048 crores.

PIS & NIIPM- Revenue- Rs. 0.059 crores.

Percentage share in Total Revenue Generated

0.0227 33.269 Designs Trademarks 0.4248 66.2556 Geographical indications 0.0278 Patents

Note: 1 Indian Rupee = 0.02226 US Dollar 1 US Dollar(USD) = 44.92140 Indian Rupee (INR) Date : Mon, 11 Jul 2011 13:49:24 GMT 1 crore = 10 million i.e. 10,000,000 (107)

Patent Trend- Asia Overview

Domestic v/s Foreign Patent Trend

Domestic patent applications have shown a steady increase but the foreign patent applications have reduced in 2009-10. The number of patents granted both foreign and domestic have reduced in 2009-10, granted foreign patents have fallen by 66%. However, India has only 20% domestic applications and majority 80% are foreign contradictory to other Asian countries- domestic applications constitute -75% of the total in China, 85% in Japan, 78% in Korea and 48% in Taiwan. This reflects poorly on the innovative strength of India which is quite shocking especially as India boosts of the second largest pool of scientists and engineers of the world. A 2009 study by Ernst & Young also reveals that India beats China, Japan, US and Europe in number of graduates with maximum graduating in maths and science. The positive statistics in education sadly dont reflect on the innovation index and some plausible measures can be: 1) more awareness 2)expenditure towards research and development to encourage innovation.

Top Applicants & Patentees

Top Ten Foreign Resident Applicants Top Indian Patent Applicants
852 725 296 267 244 242 234 222 220 Infosys Ranbaxy 203 Indian Council for Agricultural Research Amity University Council of Scientific & Industrial Research 0 50 100

150

200

Top Ten Foreign Patentees

230

79

66

65

62

52

49

49

47

41

Foreign Applications
Convention applications filed- 2986, decrease of 29.83% from last year. PCT applications- 23431, decrease of 8.85% from last year. Maximum applications by USA(8087), followed by Germany(2582), Japan(2386) and so on as the following pie chart shows. International applications filed by Indian applicants through PCT- 752, decrease of 15%. Major contributors for PCT international applications- CSIR, Hetero Research, Matrix Laboratories Ltd., Lupin Ltd., Tata Steel Ltd, Pnacea Biotech Ltd, Reliance Life Sciences Ltd. etc. USA Germany Japan Switzerland Netherlands France UK Sweden Korea China Italy Finland

Country-wise break up of national phase application

465 468 636 710 910 1198 1281 1287 2386 2582 8087 287 298 150 140 292 453 399 304 95

Trend of National Phase applications filed

1000
900 30000 25000 23891 19768 15467 25706 800 700 600 500 400 300 200 100

PCT Applications by Indian Applicants

887 707 534 390 232 231 538 752 655 521

23431

20000
15000 10000 5000 0

482 352

130
2005-06

144

169

2005-06

2006-07

0 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2006-07 Individual 2007-08 Legal Entity 2008-09 Total 2009-10

State-wise breakup of ordinary patent applications filed in India in 2009-10

P.H. Kurian- A Brief but Revolutionary Tenure at the IPO

P.H. Kurian was appointed as the Controller- General of Patents, Designs and Trademarks in January, 2009 and had the distinction of been the first officer from Indian Administrative Service (IAS) cadre to be appointed as CGPDTM. Mr. Kurian used his administrative experience of 20 years to the hilt and bought pioneering changes in the office of CGPDTM. His efforts were focused on achieving transparency in the office which he bought forth by steps like: digitisation of the CGPDTM office, streamlining of the procedures, revamped the patent agent exam, allowing only authorised agents with valid ID cards (issued by the IPTO) entry to the IPTO offices. etc. He took some bold policy decisions like: pre-grant decisions ought to be issued within a month of final hearing by Controller, post grant decisions within 3 months of final hearing, immediate publication of applications that had matured for publication under section 11A, subject-wise division of examiners and controllers along with the necessary transfers for the same. Though the number of granted patents have decreased, his tenure projected a much healthy ratio of patent examiners to the number of patents granted thus showing his emphasis on the quality rather than the total number of patents granted. It was his efforts in dealing with the manpower crisis at the CGPDTM office that led to Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) hiring over 200 new examiners. Recently, in 2011 he requested the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to conduct a criminal investigation into allegations of corruption against certain officials of the trademark registry. Unfortunately, he resigned from the post of CGPDTM on completion of only half of his 5 year term. Nonetheless he has achieved much in his short tenure and left an ineffaceable mark of quality on the office of CGPTDM. It can only be hoped that his successors take the torch ahead..

Mr. P.H. Kurian

Date of Birth :20/01/1959 IAS officer of 1986 batch. Master Degree in Chemistry, 3 years research experience in Institute of Science, Bangalore. Former Secretary to Government of Kerala. Former Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trademarks.

About Controller General of Patents, Designs, Trademarks and Geographical Indications

The Annual report of the office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs, Trademarks and Geographical Indications (CGPDTM), encapsulates the detailed activities of the various offices under CGPTDM. CGPDTM office also known as Intellectual Property Office (IPO) comes under the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion under, Ministry of Commerce and Industry. IPO is responsible for administration of Patents Act 1970, Designs Act 2000, Trademarks Act 1999, and Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999 through its offices located at Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai And Ahmedabad. The Patent Information System (PIS) and National Institute Of Intellectual Property Management (NIIPM) located at Nagpur are also under superintendence of CGPTDM. PIS maintains a comprehensive collection of patent specification and patent related literature on a worldwide basis and NIIPM as a national centre of excellence for training, management, research, and education in the field of IPR related issues imparts training to Intellectual Property Examiners. It also facilitates research on IPR.