In bid to fuel innovation, govt to hire 500 to clear 1,000 pending patents
NEW DELHI: The government is set to hire about 500 professionals across the country to clear the backlog of nearly 1,000 patent applications, in a bid to address the concern that clearance delays often hinder innovations.
According to sources, the department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP) has been asked to hire candidates with a science background, on a contract basis to increase manpower at the intellectual property offices.
The government will soon come out with qualification requirements for the post.
“Around 250 professionals will be hired at the level of patent examiners, 50 as assistant controllers and 30 as deputy controllers. The remaining will be hired at trademark offices,” a government source said.
Besides, in a second round, the government will hire another 100 trademark examiners and 270 patent examiners.
The move to reduce the pendency has been initiated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to counter the delays which are often cited at international forums, especially by the US and European nations.
Reducing the patent pendency Commerce and industry minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday called the US move to retain India on the ‘Priority Watch List’ over intellectual property rights (IPRs) concerns as a “unilateral measure” which was not in sync with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) norms.
“India continues to be placed on the Priority Watch List under the US Special 301 on account of US assessment of Indian IPR protection being inadequate,” Sitharaman said in a written reply to the Lok
to zero is likely to help improve the country’s rankings on various global indices.
The recruitment comes after the government initiated a drive to enhance transparency in patent filings by making an electronic gateway and incentivising e-filing of applications.
As per government estimates, after this was initiated, about 78% of the applications are now received online. Sabha. Countries in this list, according to the US, are unable to protect and properly enforce IPRs.
“Under WTO norms, disputes between two countries should be referred to WTO’s dispute settlement body and unilateral actions are not tenable,” she said.
HTC, NEW DELHI
According to data available with the Controller General of Patents, Design and Trademarks, applications by residents are only one-fifth of the total 286,000 patents that have been filed till 2012-13. This is far lower than the numbers in other Brics nations such as Russia and China. Globally, 2.35 million patent applications were filed in 2012. India’s share in this was a measly 1.8%.