P.H. Kurian, the controller general of patents resignes

P.H. Kurian, the controller general of patents, designs and trademarks
at India's intellectual property (IP) office, has resigned from the
key post with more than half his term left to run.

The first Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer to head the IP
office, Kurian took over the assignment in February 2009 for a
five-year term, but is reverting to his home cadre after just two
years and four months. Kurian confirmed that he has agreed to get back
to Kerala.

He had taken several initiatives to reform the IP office, which,
according to experts and those who dealt with it, had been opaque in
its functioning and also faced complaints of not always acting fairly.

Kurian introduced transparency in the process of clearing patent and
trademark applications and granting IP rights, a function that is
becoming increasingly critical as India's integration with the global
economy continues.

The decisions of the office have come under more intense public
scrutiny since India signed up to the World Trade Organization's
Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) regulations in
2005.

Industry observers, who didn't want to be cited, said that Kurian may
have ruffled feathers during his tenure with the changes he brought
about, which could have prompted the early exit.

Strategy for Drafting in Patent Agent Exam

Drafting a time consuming excercise and very often examinees can not complte answering the questions in Part II due to lack of time.
There could be different ways to manage your time:

Question on drafting claims:

1. Draft the claims first  then the title.
2. Derive the abstract from the claims so  written
3. See  that the three are in sync and all the claims are covered in the claims.


Question on drafting patent document:After answering the first question, go for the second drafting assigenment where you would be asked to draft a patent document that includes the detailed description, summary, technical field etc. Just elaborate on the claims provided as a part of the question in order to get the detailed description.


While drafting a patent do not forget to provide an working example which is the main part as it describes the best possible way to implement the invention.

Answer both the drafting assignments (worth 60 marks) within 2  hours, so that in the remaining 1 hour you can solve 4 interpretation questions which are worth 40 marks. 
 
Practice- the examples generally come on houshold items, devices etc. Download a patent and read carefully.
 

2 Different ways to transfer rights for granted and pending patents

Incase  Patent is already granted then to transfer the Right, title and interest or the proprietorship of the patent an application of transfer has to be made by the new owner/on behalf of the new owner of the patent at the IPO on Form 16 along with corroborating documents such as a Deed of Assignment on a stamped paper which also has to be witnessed by at least 2 natural persons. In case a patent agent is submitting these  documents a power of authority from the new owner of the patent is also required.

Request for Recordal of 'Transfer of Rights' is done by the new applicant/proprietor and a patent agent also has to submit a new power of authority for acting on behalf of the new applicant for transfer of rights.




Form 6 is used by the "Applicant" of a patent for transfer of rights of a pending patent application.

For simple change of name of the applicant where no transfer of rights has taken place Form 13 is used.  It can be used for all amendments - pre-grant or post-grant.