A Patent agent as defined under Section 2(n) of the India Patent Act, 1970 is a person who has passed Indian Patent Agent Examination and is registered under section 126 of the Indian Patent Act as a patent agent. Patent agent is involved in drafting filing, and prosecution of the patent application before the controller on behalf of the person who wish to file a patent. Patent agent has to be authorized by the inventor to act on his behalf by executing power of attorney in his name. Patent agent is person who has written and passed patent agent exam and registered himself as a patent agent. Doing this, his name is entered in the Register of Patent Agents by the Controller.
Who can be a patent agent?
The qualifications to become a Patent agent are as follows:
- He should be a citizen of India;
- He have completed the age of 21;
- He should have completed a degree in either Science, Engineering or Technology from any university established under law for the time being in force in the territory of India or should possess such other equivalent qualifications as specified by the Central Government; In this regard, final year students can also apply as long as they can produce their degree certificate with all the marks card within 2 months from the date of announcement of patent agent examination results;
- He should have either passed the qualifying examination prescribed for the purpose or should have functioned either as an examiner or discharged the functions of the Controller under section 73 or both, for a total period not less than 10 years provided that, at time of making the application for registration he has ceased to hold any such capacity; &
- He should have paid the prescribed fees.
Indian Patent Agent Examination
Only a person meeting the qualification provided under Section 126 of the Act shall apply for the Indian patent agent examination. The applicant should select the center of his convenience to write the exam which is usually conducted in 5 cities that is, Mumbai, Delhi, Nagpur, Chennai and Kolkata. The Indian patent agent examination, generally, is conducted once every year and the examination consist of:
Written Exam: The written exam, conducted by the office of the Controller of patents comprises of:
- Paper I (100 marks)
- Paper II (100 marks)
The Paper I will have both Objective and Descriptive type questions and is based on the Patent Act and Rules.
Paper II will have questions related to drafting, interpretation of patent specifications and other descriptive questions from Patent Act and PCT.
A candidate is required to score a minimum of 50 marks in each paper to pass the examination. Therefore, to qualify, the person should be thorough with the acts, rules, practice and procedures of patenting.
Viva voce: Candidates who pass in Paper I and II are called for Viva and it is conducted for 50 marks. The questions that are generally asked are based on IPR and more specifically patent law provisions related to the technical field of the candidate. For a person to qualify as a patent agent, he should secure an overall 60% aggregate of the total marks. The amendment in relation to the scores requires to be qualified were made after 2012, Delhi High court decision in the case of, Anvitha Singh v. Union of India wherein the rule prescribing a minimum 50 per cent marks in the viva-voce part of the patent agent examination was struck down thereby giving less weight to it.
The result of the examination is usually announced after two months of conducting the examination. The results are announced on the official website of Office of Controller General of Patents.
Rights of a Patent Agent
Rights of a Patent agents are described under section 127 of The Patents Act 1970. These rights are as follows:
(a) to practice before the Controller; and
(b) to prepare all documents, transact all business and discharge such other functions as may be prescribed in connection with any proceeding before the Controller under this Act.
Indian Patent Agent is authorized to draft, file, prosecute patent and design application in India and PCT.
How to prepare for Indian Patent Agent Exam
In order to prepare for the exam, you need following:
- Indian Patent Act 1970. You must be thorough with all sections, rules, fee and forms of Indian Patent Act 1970. The manual of patent office practice and procedure is very useful to understand various provisions of the Act.
- PCT practices and procedures, fee, timelines
- Patent specification drafting skills
- General information of IPR, important case-laws
- PCT practices and procedures, fee, timelines
It is immensely useful to download and solve previous year question papers for practice:
Career options for patent agent
A patent agent, being atleast gradate in science is a perfect candidate to work in research and innovation-based industries. Based on his scientific degree, he can work in pharmaceutical, biotechnology, manufacturing, automobile, automotive industry as a patent engineer or patent analyst. A patent agent can work in following areas:
- Different types of Patent searches like novelty search, technology landscape, invalidation search, EOU (Evidence of use) search etc.
- Patent specification drafting, file, prosecution in India and PCT
- Handling patent opposition, revocation etc
- Patent specification drafting, file, prosecution in India and PCT
Being a registered patent agent is helpful for those who want to have long term career in the area of patents. It opens up many more areas to work in, especially patent specification drafting, filing and prosecution.
Origiin has been successfully conducting training sessions to help aspiring candidates qualify the Indian Patent Agent Examination since the year 2009.
Our in-house IP experts have been instrumental in developing a comprehensive study material for the Online Course to prepare for Indian Patent Agent Examination.
Course advantages:
- Learn at your own pace and convenience
- Illustrations and examples provided for easy learning
- Assessment and practice questions at the end of every module
Link to register for the course: https://www.origiin.com/indian-patent-agent-examination/
Some important links:
- Official website of Indian Patent Office
- Guidelines to apply for exam (forms, fee and procedure)
http://ipindiaonline.gov.in/AgentExam2020/Documents/Online_Application_Guidelines_2020.pdf
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References
- http://ipindiaonline.gov.in/AgentExam2020/Documents/Online_Application_Guidelines_2020.pdf
- https://ipindia.gov.in/writereaddata/Portal/IPOAct/1_31_1_patent-act-1970-11march2015.pdf
- Bare act of The Patents Act 1970.
- http://www.ipindia.gov.in/writereaddata/Portal/IPORule/1_70_1_The-Patents-Rules-2003-Updated-till-23-June-2017.pdf
- The Patents rules 2003, updated till 2017.
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