Is E-Filing, The Only Mode to File Patent Application in India?

Is E-Filing, The Only Mode to File Patent Application in India? Yes – In the year 2007, the Indian Patent Office has introduced the E-filing mode to file patent applications in India. This has been introduced to make the filing process much easier to access and file from any location. Since, filing the applications manually, takes a longer time to file and submit all the hard copies of all the documents, and contain a lot of mistakes; the authorities finally decided to launch the procedure on the Internet. On being successful as a crucial step, the authorities finally decided to make it as the only mode to file patent applications from the year 2016. As per the Patent Rules 2016, there is no provision to file patent application in any of the four Indian Offices manually. This law became effective from 16^th May, 2016, after which the Offices are no longer accepting the offline application filing.

E-filing Procedure

Let’s have a look at the patent filing procedure through online mode.

Step 1- Registration: The applicant has to register his details, such as his name, address, mobile number, identity proof, etc. to open his account on the Indian IP portal. Once the registration is done, the applicant will be provided with a registered user ID and password, which will be required to log into his account to proceed to further steps.
Step 2- Login: The online patent filing facility provides a dual login functionality, that provides the applicant and the agent can login to the corresponding account by the user ID, password or by the digital signature.
Step 3- Enter and save details: At this stage, the user can enter the details about his invention on the online portal to proceed further. Once all the details and documents are scanned and uploaded on the portal, they are asked to get saved. Once they are all saved, the applicant can now precede further to the payment steps.
Step 4- Sign patent application digitally: Once all the documents are uploaded and saved, the applicant can now digitally sign the drafted entry.
Step 5- Make associated payment: Once the digitally signed patent application is uploaded, the portal will auto-calculate the amount that has to be submitted, depending upon the invention type, number of claims, pages, etc. For making the payment, the applicant must select the payment gateway and make the assigned payment.
Step 6- Receiving acknowledgement slip: Once all the payment is done, the applicant will receive an acknowledgement slip at the same time, just after the payment has been completed.
Step 7- Generation of CBR: Once the acknowledgement slip is received, realization of payment into the RBI account takes place, which takes maximum of 2 days’ time. Then the generation of CBR takes place along with the permanent number of registration.

Benefits of E-Filing of Patent Application

Let’s have a look at the advantages of filing the patent application through online mode.

Flexibility: Using the online mode, the patent application can be filed from any place at any time. The person need not to physically visit the patent office situated at four places in India.
Faster and smooth process: Using the online mode, the applicants now have to submit all the details at once, which increase the speed as compared to the manual mode. Adding to this, the applicant can now avoid a lot of mistakes, such as spelling mistake, or any other mistake, since the portal will not take the data if it does not fulfill the desired criteria. Therefore, such delays can easily be avoided and the process generates acknowledgement on the spot, if all the details are correctly filed.
Enhancement in accuracy: Since, there is no scope that entries have to be typed manually, there are less chances for mistakes to be made. This reduces the scope of making illogical errors, thus increasing the accuracy of work.
Minimal errors in format: Since, the online portal just doesn’t accept any wrong format for any data in the application; the format has to be followed to proceed further to any next steps. Further, e-filing allows for validation with the IPO database.
Transparency in payments: The online mode of filing has ensured that there are minimum transaction errors and complete transparency in payment.

Our Approach

Your Patent Team (YPT) is a team of more than 125 members, consisting of patent attorneys, IP experts, and technical subject experts that deals in a number of domains, such as Pharmaceutical, Chemical, Mechanical, Electrical, Biotechnology, Electronics, Telecommunication, Software, Information Technology and many more. We serve clients from more than 45 countries and have presence in 90+ jurisdictions.

If you need any sort of professional help at any phase of online patent filing process, please do find us at our website: https://yourpatentteam.com/