Approaches to Get Your Patent Application Moving Much Faster

Mar 162019

Introduction

As we all know that expedited is the faster process of the examination of patent applications than the normal examinations. Various initiatives have been taken by the government to find out ways through which the time taken to examine the patent applications can be reduced. Patent Attorney in India reserve all the rights to view and proceed with your patent application.

(1) Expedited Examination :
Below mentioned are some criteria which are required in order to avail the benefit of patent examinations:

a. Patent Applicant is a Start-up
As per the patent rules the patent application has to be a startup as defined by the authorized bodies if this criterion is getting fulfilled only then you can opt for the expedited exams.

b. At the time of filing the patent application make sure that the patent application is a start-up.

There is also a possibility that a patent applicant might have applied for a patent before the option for expedited examinations was available. Such applicants if recognized as a start-up at the time application was filed then they can avail the benefit of expedited examination and even they can later cease to be qualified as a startup for two reasons:

(a) The very first reason is that without claiming start-up status you have filed the patent application and it has more than five years from the date of applicants registration.

(b) A second reason is that after filing the patent application (but without claiming the startup status) at the time of requesting the turnover, the applicant must have crossed the limit of INR 25 crore in one or more than one financial year (at the conversion rate of USD 1 = INR 70).

c. ISA or IPEA has been chosen by the Applicant

Patent applicant those who have selected as a startup can apply for the expedited examination. Such applications are also authorized to include legal and individual entities. At the time of filing the patent application make sure that the patent application was a start-up. PCT application corresponding to Indian application must be filed in order to opt for expedited examinations. However, at present only Indian and Iranian candidates can select India. This clears that non- Indian and non- Iranian applicants who do not qualify the criteria of start-up are not eligible to apply for the patent examination.

Charges for Expedited Examination

As the service is different so the charges are also different. As the charges for the expedited exams are more than the ordinary exams but make sure that when the patent application is published then only expedited examination request will be entertained. The other option is that the applicant can file an early publication request with the request of expedited examination. The fee structure in INR is given below:

Sl. No.	Entity	Statutory Fee (INR)
1.	Natural person/ Startup	8000
2.	Small entity	25000
3.	Large entity	60000

How to convert ordinary examination request to expedited examination request

Every year a limited number of a request are entertained for the expedited exam request. The communication will be made via the official journal of the Indian patent office once the limit of the year has reached. Hence, once the limit is reached for expedite examinations one can apply for normal examinations for the time being. So when the patent office starts accepting the request for the expedite examinations in the following year at that time the applicant can request to convert ordinary exam into the expedite examination.

In another situation, if the candidate has already chosen the option of ordinary exams even before the option of expediting was available such request can also be converted into expedited examination request. Below are the charges for converting the ordinary examination request into the expedite one.

Sl. No.	Entity	Statutory Fee (INR)
1.	Natural person/ Startup	8000
2.	Small entity	25000
3.	Large entity	60000

2) Implementation of Patent Prosecution Highway in India

PPH or Patent Prosecution Highway program is one of the most effective ways of speeding up the Patent Prosecution examination process filed in participating intellectual property offices.

The Patent offices Under the Patent Prosecution Highway program, have agreed that when an applicant receives the final ruling from the patent office where he/she has applied first, the applicant may request a fast track examination for the next claims that is pending in the second office. This process speeds up the patent application procedure thus reducing the wastage of time and efforts. The process leverages already in place fast track examination procedures to reach final deposition of a patent application more quickly and efficiently than the standard process.

One of the best things about the PPH program is that there is no fee under this program for the applicant.

Advantages of PPH

One of the major advantages of implementing PPH is the faster examination and proceedings that helps the applicant to get a patent in a faster and efficient way. Also, the search and examination in the other patent offices improve the quality and standards of the examination proceedings.

Another major advantage of implementing PPH is that since the allowance rates are increased, the number of office actions are reduced to almost half.

Requirements for PPH

It is common thinking amongst patent applicants that since the PPH does not incur any fees, anybody can apply for PPH to speed up their application which is not true at all. For entry to an Office of Second Filing through the PPH, a number of requirements must be fulfilled and that only makes you eligible for the PPH program.