Patent Office to Strengthen its Workforce

According to news reported by Economic Times, Indian Patent Office is likely to employ 1600 personnels in the next three-four years. N N Prasad, Joint Secretary Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) said that there would be more than 200 patent examiners and 1400 personnels to be added to the workforce in the next three to four years. He also added that the Centre is setting up a National Institute of Intellectual Property Management that will provide training and research in the international intellectual property regime, which is coming up at Nagpur. Speaking at a seminar organized by the DIPP and FICCI, Deputy Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Narendra Sabharwal said India has made rapid progress in the IPR.

This seems to be a good sign that the Indian Government want to strengthen workforce infrastructure but currently what is more important is particularly to pen-down a clear guidelines about the examining patentability of the inventions specifically for pharmaceutical inventions. As far as training is concerned, yes there is imperative need for root understanding of patents and examining merits of patentability particularly for patent examiners, who not only lack consensus among themselves about examining patentability but also decent understanding of technical jargons and know-how.