'Patent filing by India among the lowest'

India's filing of patents is one of the lowest in the world, K P Sah, examiner of patents and designs, patent office, Mumbai, said.

"The local filing in India stands at 1,660 compared with 1,11,883 in the United States, while foreign filing in India stands at 6,632 compared with 1,11,536 in the United States," Sah said at a workshop on patent awareness.

Sah said, "If the patent is for a product, it confers rights on the patentee which include the right to prevent others from making, using, offering for sale, selling and importing the patented products. If the patent is for a process, the rights which a patent confers on the patentee includes, the right to prevent others from using the process and offering for sale, selling and importing the product using the process."

Office at New Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai grant patents under the Patents Act, 1970, and registration of designs under the Designs Act, 1911.

The patent information system at Nagpur helps in documentation including retrieval and dissemination of information contained in the patent documents.

The trade marks registrars at Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, New Delhi and Chennai help in registration of trade marks under the Trade and Merchandise Marks Act, 1958.

The intellectual property rights includes patents, industrial designs, trademarks, geographical indications, copyright and related rights, layout designs of integrated circuits, protection of undisclosed information and control of anti-competitive practices in contractual licenses.

Padmin Buch, chief consultant, GITCO, said "Gujarat needs a creative approach and initiative on patents. The initiatives taken by the patent assistance cell at GITCO include creating patent awareness, patent counselling, library and database access, patent drafting and patent filing.

Nalini Kanta Mohanti, examiner of patent and design, patent office, Union ministry of commerce and industry, Mumbai, and Anil Mukim, commissioner, trade and commerce, government of Gujarat, also spoke.

The workshop was organised by the government of Gujarat-Ahmedabad Management Association Centre for International Trade in association with the Trade and Commerce Commissionerate, government of Gujarat, and the Industrial Extension Bureau (Indextb) on Saturday.

The workshop was inaugurated by Arvind Agarwal, industries commissioner and chairman, Indextb.