India-Japan PPH?

The draft Patent Amendment Rules published by the Indian Patent Office in 2018 might just be a step towards formalizing a Patent Prosecution Highway between India Japan. At the Japan-India Summit Meeting on October 29, 2018, the leaders of the two countries concurred to start a bilateral PPH program on a pilot basis in certain fields of inventions in first quarter of 2019. Under the PPH, Japanese companies can request expedited examinations in India based on patent applications granted in Japan. This will result in smooth and quick grant of these patent applications in India.
The actual implementation of the PPH would require amendments of the Patent Rules in India. This PPH is the first of a kind in India, and would be expanded in future to include more jurisdictions such as USA, Europe, China, and Korea. The PPH will be especially beneficent for pharmaceutical companies and manufacturers who can obtain expedited grant of patent applications in India. There are also efforts from World Intellectual Property Organization or WIPO, to harmonize the patent examination process and the patent-ability criteria in all the member jurisdictions of WIPO.
The challenge, however, lies in the practical execution of the PPH. The Patent Examiners in India would have to be trained for a fast yet thorough and comprehensive search for patentability of the inventions. The number of Patent Examiners would have to be increased to accommodate the increased number of patent applications to be granted expeditiously. The time taken for examination of formal requirements will have to be reduced. It is already known that the Indian Patent Office has been coordinating with the Japanese Patent Office for the training of the Patent Examiners.

- Nikhil Tanawade; the content above is the opinion of Nikhil Tanawade and the opinion is not associated with any organization/associate.