The Patent (Amendment) Rules 2021 recognized the role of educational institutions in the field of innovation. Therefore, the innovations require the protection of patent registration, which is offered at a reduced fee. Also, some new bodies are included to extend the facilities of patent protection.
The patent is the procedure of preserving intellectual property by granting an exclusive right over an invention. The invention must be such a product or a procedure that provides a new manner of doing something or brings a new technical solution. To obtain a patent, technical information relevant to the invention should be opened before the public while presenting a patent application.
A product or process must comply with these criteria to be eligible for patentability:
Among all, two amendments made to the Patents Act 1970 are significant: Patents (Amendment) Act 2005: Through this amendment, the scope of patentability was extended to other products such as food, drugs, chemicals and microorganisms.
Through this amendment, the rights of exclusive marketing were removed to introduce the provision of compulsory licensing. The provisions of opposition to patent applications pre-grant and post-grant were introduced.
Patents (Amendment) Rules 2021: Educational organizations are involved in many research actions. The professors/ teachers and students develop various new technologies which require to be patented for promoting commercialization of the same.
At the time of seeking patents, the innovators have to correlate for these patents in the name of the organizations which have to compensate for the fees for huge numbers of applicants, which are expensive and thus work as a disinterest.
To encourage more participation of educational organizations, official fees paginated by them in respect of various acts under the Patents Rules, 2003, have been reduced by way of the Patents (Amendment) Rules, 2021.
Advantages pertained to 80% reduced fee for patent filing & trial have been broadened to all educational organizations. This advantage was ahead of availability to all established educational organizations owned by the administration.
Expansion of the Expedited Examination System was another change introduced by this amendment. The rapidly granted patent is the one that was permitted 41 days after filing such a request. This facility of Expedited Examination system was originally provided for patent registration filed by Startups.
It has now been extended to 8 more categories of Patent Applicants comprising