[Patentpractice] Potential chaos in India patent or trademark prosecution

[Richard Schafer]

If one of your clients received patents or trademark registrations in India in the last 2 years, they may be zombies. Apparently, instead of using government employees as examiners, the Patent and Trademark offices outsourced that to a non-government third party, without having the authority to do so. The Law Ministry has issued an opinion saying anything issued as a result of those decisions is "legally unenforceable."  The first source below refers to patents and trademarks, but the second article below says only trademarks, so the actual scope is unclear. Regardless, this is a mess, to put it mildly.

Lakhs of patent orders by 'outsourced' staff null and void, says Law Ministry | India News - The Indian Express (ampproject.org)<https://indianexpress-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/indianexpress.com/article/india/lakhs-of-patent-orders-by-outsourced-staff-null-and-void-says-law-ministry-9506993/lite/>

Revalidate all decisions by contractual staff: DPIIT directs patent office | Business News - The Indian Express<https://indianexpress.com/article/business/economy/matter-pertains-to-trademark-not-patents-official-9508564/>

"lakh" means 100,000 in Indian English.


Best regards,
Richard A. Schafer | Schafer IP Law
P.O. Box 230081 | Houston, TX 77223
M: 832.283.6564 | richard at schafer-ip.com<mailto:richard at schafer-ip.com>

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