An individual owning a patent, i.e. patentee, needs to submit Form 27 within three months from the end of each year to the Controller General of Patents. Form 27 is a statement regarding the working of the Patented Invention on a commercial scale in India. To ease the compliance burden and the process of doing business, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry has made changes in the Patents (Amendment) Rules, 2020 on Wednesday.
The government undertook stakeholder consultation to streamline the requirements related to submission of Form 27 consequent to the Delhi High Court’s Order dated 23 April 2018. This order of the Delhi High Court had given a direction to the Patent Office to provide a proposed modified Form 27. After consultation with the stakeholders, the government issued the changes regarding filing Form 27 and submission of verified English translation of priority documents, which are not in the English language.
The streamlined requirements provide flexibility to the patentee for filing a single Form 27 in respect of a single or multiple related patents. The single form will ease the burden of the patentee and also boost innovation. The authorised agents will be allowed to submit Form 27 on behalf of the patentee, which helps in easing the process of doing business for innovators. If there is a grant of a patent to two or more persons, they may file a joint Form 27.
The patentees are required to provide in Form 27 the approximate revenue or value accrued from the patented invention. The patentees need not file this form in respect of a part or fraction of the financial year. The patentee will get six months, instead of the current three months, from the expiry of the financial year to file this form with the Controller of Patents.
Although the requirements of filing Form 27 is eased concerning the submission of information by the patentees, the Patents Act provides power to the Controller of Patents to ask for information from the patentee as he deems appropriate.
An applicant filing an international application designating India, who has not complied with the requirements of filing priority documents under the regulations of the Patent Cooperation Treaty, needs to file the priority documents with the Indian Patent Office. These priority documents need to be in the English language.
The government also notified changes in the filing of priority documents. The applicant needs to submit a verified English translation of a priority document if the validity of the priority claim is related to the determination of whether the invention is patentable or not. The applicant is not required to submit the priority document to the Indian Patent Office if the priority document is available in the World Intellectual Property Organisation’s digital library.
The steps taken by the government to streamline the requirements relating to the submission of Form 27 helps the patentees as it simplifies the compliances to be followed under the Patents Rules by them. It provides for ease of doing business in terms of the statement related to the working of a patented invention of commercial scale in India.
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