According to the Secretariat Report, "There are patent offices in Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata, and Mumbai that deal with patent applications originating within their respective territorial jurisdictions." Please explain the measures CGPDTM has taken or will take in order to harmonize criteria for the prosecution of patent applications between Offices.
Reply: Patent applications are received and prosecuted according to their appropriate jurisdiction. The procedure adopted for prosecution of patent applications is same at all patent office locations as these procedures are strictly within the framework of Patents Act and Patent Rules. If any modifications are required to be incorporated in the patent procedures by virtue of amendments in the Patents Act and Patent Rules, the same are implemented equally at all locations. Thus, the criteria for the prosecution of patent applications between offices has been the same over the years. Further, electronic patent database has been created by digitizing the patent records and the same has been made available to users in the official website. From July 2009, the CGPDTM has implemented patent prosecution through application software modules by introducing Patent Office Procedure (POP) in all Patent Office locations in order to make patent prosecution speedier, transparent and user friendly. To bring further consistency in the office procedures, the CGPDTM published the Manual of Patent Office Practice and Procedure on 22 March 2011, after considering views of all the stakeholders.
