Usha Sharma – Mumbai
Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), Government of India has recently released a gazette draft notification of Patent (Amendment) Rules 2013, proposing the increase of fees for pharmaceutical patents. DIPP has called for objections and suggestions from the pharma industry before June 20, 2013. As per the draft rule, pharma companies need to pay double the previous amount.
Justifying the proposed hike, S K Lal, Under Secretary, DIPP said, “The patent filing fee is five times more in developed countries compared to India. Here, we only propose to double the amount. However, the final decision on the draft proposal will be taken only after reviewing responses from industry. We might not increase the fee structure if we receive enough justification from the industry. But if we do not receive responses then we will go ahead with these amendments and take two to three months to release the final amendment to the rule.”
If changes are proposed by industry, these will be deliberated but the aim is to positively release the final notification by the end of this year.
As per the released draft of the amended rules, there will be a 10 per cent additional surcharge on documents filed in the physical format. This is the first time in the history of filing of Indian pharma patents that such a surcharge will be levied, indicating that the authorities are trying to encourage applicants to use the e-filing mode.
Commenting on the proposed changes, Dr Gopakumar G Nair, Founder, Gopakumar Nair Associates said, “As far as the proposed fee structure is concerned, the increase in patent filing fees by Indian authorities is a quid pro quo because countries like the US and Europe have increased the fee. The increase in fee in these countries is much higher than the proposed fee hike in India. India is now becoming an international search authority and international patent examination authority. There is a considerable backlog of patent applications in India. Patent office requires to be substantially equipped with higher quality and larger quantity of technically qualifies manpower. The proposed fee is also justified since the effort is to improve e-filling.”
The Patent (Amendment) Rules 2013 shall come into force from the date the final amendment is published in the Official Gazette.