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India launches e-filing patent & trademark
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| 04. ECONOMY |
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| INDIA LAUNCHES E-FILING OF PATENT & TRADEMARK |
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The Union Minister for Commerce & Industry, Shri Kamal Nath and the Minister of State for Industry, Shri Ashwani Kumar releasing the user manual at the launch of the e-filing of Patent & Trademark applications, in New Delhi on July 20, 2007. |
The e-filing of Patent & Trademark applications, was launched byMr. Kamal Nath, Union Minister of Commerce & Industry, at a function organised by the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP. With the launch of e-filing facilities the Minister stated that applicants can file their patent and trademark applications from anywhere in the world at any time at their convenience through Internet.
Payments can also be made through the Payment Gateway of authorised bankers, which would save time and money and the hassles involved in visiting and filing the applications in the offices. |
Dwelling on the future initiatives, Shri Kamal Nath said the next step is making Indian Patent Office (IPO) an International Search Authority (ISA) and an International Preliminary Examining Authority (IPEA) under the Patent Cooperation Treaty.
Application for this will be filed with the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) this month itself, he informed. Currently, there are only 12 such authorities. Recognition as ISA and IPEA will enhance the prestige of the IPO and may attract work from abroad. “India is also at an advanced stage of joining the Madrid Protocol on Trade Marks. |
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The Bill for making the changes necessary in the Trade Mark law will be introduced in the forthcoming session of the Parliament. Madrid Protocol is a simple, facilitative and cost-effective system for registration of International Trademarks.
India’s membership of the Madrid Protocol will help Indian companies to register their trade marks in the member countries of the Protocol through a single application”, the Minister further stated. Providing details of the programme, Shri Kamal Nath informed that a major programme of modernization of the infrastructure of Intellectual Property Offices of India costing Rs.153 crore was implemented during the 10th Five Year Plan.
Computerization has been one of the key components of the modernization initiatives. As part of this, facilities have been created for e-filing of Patent and Trademark applications. There are only a dozen or so countries which have e-filing facilities at present and India now gets into this elite group consisting of countries like USA, Japan, South Korea, China and the European Patent Office. |
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| KAMAL NATH NAMED FDI GLOBAL PERSONALITY OF THE YEAR |
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Shri Kamal Nath, Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, has been named “FDI Personality of the Year 2007” for Asia as well as the worldwide winner by FDI magazine and Financial Times Business, which is published by the Financial Times Group in London. “This award is in recognition of your active efforts to attract foreign businesses to India, boost exports, and promote trade and investment – the results of which have been a substantial increase in FDI inflows to India and a rise in export volumes last year, contributing to the continued economic development of the country and adding to its attractiveness as an investment location”, says the citation by the premier publication which reports on the issues and developments that corporate executives consider while making international investment decisions.
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Reacting to this honour, Shri Kamal Nath stated that India’s exports have almost doubled from Rs.293367 crore in 2003-04 to Rs.563800 crore during 2006-07. India’s exports grew at an average annual growth rate of about 25% during the past 3 years.
The FDI equity inflows during the year 2003-04 stood at Rs.10237 crore and have risen to Rs.70630 crore during the year 2006-07, amounting to a cumulative growth of 700%. The percentage growth during 2004-05 was 44% over the previous year. During 2005-06 it grew by 72.29% while in 2006-07, the percentage growth is 183.56, Shri Kamal Nath added. |
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EXPORTS UP BY OVER 20 percent INDIAS FOREIGN |
Cumulative value of India’s merchandise exports for the period April-May, 2007 was US $ 22436.39 million ($ 22.4 billion) or Rs.92944.16 Crore as against US $ 18639.50 million ($ 18.6 billion) or Rs.84243.20 Crore during the same period last year, registering an increase of 20.37%. Merchandise exports during May, 2007 were valued at US $ 11861.28 million which was 18.07 % higher than the level of US $ 10045.99 million during May, 2006.
In rupee terms, exports touched Rs.48371.98 crore, which was 6.04% higher than the value of exports during May, 2006. India’s Imports during May, 2007 were valued at US $ 18077.81 million representing an increase of 26.36 % over the level of imports valued at US $ 14306.76 million in May, 2006. In Rupee terms, imports increased by 13.49 %. Cumulative value of imports for the period April-May, 2007 was US$ 35713.14 million (Rs.148053.58 Crore) as against US$ 26841.29 million (Rs.121304.73 Crore) during the same period last year. Oil imports during May, 2007 were valued at US $ 4740.29 million which was 2.99% lower than oil imports valued at US $ 4886.44 million in the corresponding period last year.
Oil imports during April-May, 2007 were valued at US $ 9165.20 million which was 1.01% higher than the oil imports of US $ 9073.62 million in the corresponding period last year. Non-oil imports during May, 2007 were estimated at US $ 13337.52 million which was 41.58 % higher than growth on non oil imports of US$ 9420.32 million in May, 2006.
Non-oil imports during April-May, 2007 were valued at US$ 26547.94 million which was 49.42% higher than the level of such imports valued at US$ 17767.67 million in April-May, 2006. The trade deficit for April-May, 2007 was estimated at US $ 13276.75 million which was higher than the deficit at US $ 8201.79 million during April-May, 2006. |
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EXPANSION OF OVERSEAS MARKETS FOR AGRO PRODUCTS |
Shri Kamal Nath, Union Minister of Commerce & Industry, while chairing the Parliamentary Consultative Committee of his Ministry on the subject of “Infrastructure for agro-exports”, stated that the agricultural exports have a crucial role to play in the long-term as it has the potential to provide farmers a better price for their produce. “India has a huge potential for organic farming and exports of organic agro-products will be promoted in a big way by the government”, he said. He informed the Members that there was a need to further expand our agro-trade to overseas markets and highlighted the recent success in getting market access for mangoes in Japan and the USA. Australia and New Zealand are yet to open their markets on mangoes while Russia is not allowing import of egg power and meat. “The Ministry is committed to engage with other countries and agencies to remove the current impediments to achieve higher agricultural exports to these markets”, he said. |
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