Press Information Bureau
Government of India
Ministry of Commerce & Industry

13-August-2012 17:14 IST

Patent to Food Products/Medicines

As on 31^st December, 2011, 12690 applications seeking patent for food products/ medicines/pharmaceutical inventions are pending with the Office of the Controller General of  Patents, Designs & Trade Marks (O/o CGPDTM).

The location wise pendency of patent applications is as follows:-

The details of these applications are available on the official website of the O/o CGPDTM i.e. [email protected]

During the last three years, i.e., from 2009 to 2011, 94 patents were granted to food products and 1810 patents were granted for medicines/pharmaceutical inventions in the same period. The details in respect of patents granted to food products and medicines/pharmaceutical inventions in the last three years are also available on the official website of the O/o CGPDTM.

Grant of patent is a quasi-judicial process and tends to be time consuming as it involves various steps, inter alia, publication of the application, filing of requests for examination, examination of the application and disposal of any pre grant opposition filed. In addition, substantive increase in filing of patent application by more than 250% in the last ten years as also the relative shortage of patent examiners have been the other reasons for increase in pendency.

                            The Government has completed the process of selection of 248 patent examiners. Of these, as on 30^th April, 2012, 135 have joined. At present, all essential steps involved in the processing of patent applications are carried out through electronic module, which has been an important factor in imparting accuracy, efficiency and transparency to the patent examination system and in avoiding delays in carrying out the process steps.

                                                                                                                                                                                                        This information was given by the Minister of State  for Commerce &     Industry Shri Jyotiraditya M. Scindia  in written reply to a question in Lok  Sabha today.

                DS/GK