Du IP Café

My first encounter with First Examination Reports (FER) issued by Indian Patent Office (IPO) happened during my internship in 2014 where i observed patent applications roughly took 4-5 years to get examined and another 1-2 years to get a grant post examination. Considering the limited period (20 years) for which patent rights are granted, prosecution time of 5-7 years was quite unusually high. Things improvised and became much swift after IPO appointed more patent examiners. Still the average time taken by a patent application to proceed towards grant was high. For the individual inventor-applicants, the problems faced were altogether on different level. They essentially lost interest in getting patent for their invention due to long duration of prosecution and costs involved thereof. Another measure to address the issue was taken and The Patent Rules were amended in 2016 to introduce the provision of expedited examination for an applicant who is either a start up or the applicant

For Doordarshan, Lockdown has certainly extended an unprecedented opportunity to revive the good old golden days and to increase TRP (Television Ratings Point) to great heights!  On public demand, Ramayana, Mahabharata and Shaktimaan serials are being telecast by Doordarshan. I have been watching the all time epic series "CID" these days and while watching one of the episodes discussed about patenting of a device which triggered a series of thoughts concerning IP rights into different aspects of movies, TV serials, music videos etc. However, what caught my attention was the creative and thoughtful titles of the episodes such "Pracheen Fingerprints"..What's in a name? Shakespeare had written. But here everything is in a name..from brand name, movie titles, book titles to name of a person! A movie title can be protected by way of registration with associations such as the Indian Motion Picture Producers' Association (IMPPA), the Association of Motion