International Activities
Meeting with India Patent Office examiners
On November 1, 2010, JIPA arranged a meeting of opinion exchange with three Indian patent examiners, namely, Mr. Mamidi of the Munbai Patent Office, Mr. Madakannu of the Chennai Patent Office, and Mr. Bhatnagar of the New Delhi Patent Office. They were visiting Japan to participate in patent examination training at the Asia-Pacific Industrial Property Center (AIPC) of the Japan Institute of Invention and Innovation (JIII). From JIPA, 10 members of the 3rd International Affairs Committee, including Chairperson Mr. Kasuya(Pioneer), attended this gathering.
At the meeting, JIPA introduced its organization, focusing on its activities relating to India. The Indian examiners provided JIPA with information on recent IP administration in India and their answers to the questions that JIPA had sent them in advance.
Moving on to the discussion session, JIPA obtained helpful information on more practical issues from the Indian examiners, including: the status and frequency of the use of foreign applications as references; the status of the first action pendency and the plan to increase the number of examiners; the information available on the website of the Indian Patent Office, and the procedure for filing the first patent application in a foreign country with regard to an invention made in India.
Against the backdrop of economic cooperation between Japan and India, JIPA has recently been carrying out activities relating to India increasingly every year, such as submitting opinions and holding IP seminars, and accordingly, JIPA needs more detailed information on the patent affairs of this country. In such situation, JIPA hopes to make good use of this kind of meeting for direct talks with Indian patent officials.
