Country Reports September 2011

Country Reports – September 2011

img-51 Country: INDIA Period of Report: September 2011
  1. The Indian Patent Office released draft amendment to the Patent Rules on March 8, 2011. The Draft amendment is directed to number of changes which includes e-filing of patent applications and related forms, assistance in E-filing to those for whom E-filing is not convenient, the format of applications to be submitted, provisions relating to sequence listing of nucleotides and/ or amino acids sequences in computer readable form (ASCII text file), submission of amendment to specification and drawings through online system and changes the First schedule of the Patent Rules.
  2. The office of controller general of patents, designs & trademarks of the Indian patent office released, the MANUAL OF PATENT OFFICE PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE as modified on March 22, 2011.
  3. In the month of May, 2011 the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Ministry of Commerce & Industry of the Indian government has released a Discussion Paper on Utility Models. The paper examines the viability of introducing utility models in the IPR regime in India with an objective to develop a suitable framework for protecting utility models if it is found desirable.
  4. In the month of April, 2011 the Office of Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks, India has published the “Draft Manual of Geographical Indications Practice and Procedure”. The manual has been finalized and published on 27 July 2011.
  5. WIPO and India, Partner to Protect Traditional Knowledge from Misappropriation, this is based on the three-day International Conference on the Utilization of the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library as a Model for Protection of Traditional Knowledge, co-organized by WIPO and India’s Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), which took place on March 22-24 of 2011. The Indian TKDL (Traditional Knowledge Digital Library) project, developed over a ten year period, documented knowledge about traditional medical treatments and the curative properties of plants, which was contained in ancient texts and languages, and classified the information in a searchable database. The TKDL now contains 34 million pages in five international languages.
img-52 Country: PAKISTAN Period of Report: September 2011
  1. The Patent Office, IPO-Pakistan has been given access to K-PION database of the Korean Patent Office. K-PION is a Database consisting of large number of granted patents in English Translation. The Patent Office, IPO-Pakistan has also given access to Advanced Industrial Property Network (AIPN) database of Japan Patent Office. AIPN Database contains more than Seven Million records of Japan Patent Office in English Translation. The addition of these new databases will improve Patent Search and will help IPO-Pakistan to provide better and improved service delivery.
  2. The Patent Office, IPO-Pakistan decided to restructure the Fee for IP applications i.e. Patents, Trademarks, Copyrights, has been notified in the Gazette of Pakistan and is effective from June 4, 2011.
img-54 Country: NEPAL Period of Report: September 2011
No significant developments
img-55 Country: SRI LANKA Period of Report: September 2011
  1. A Law to provide for the Protection and Management of Traditional Knowledge in Sri Lanka and matters related and ancillary thereto has been introduced.
img-53 Country: BANGLADESH Period of Report: September 2011
No significant developments