Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office

“ India continues to make gradual progress on efforts to improve its legislative, administrative, and enforcement infrastructure for IPR. India has made incremental improvements on enforcement, and its IP offices continued to pursue promising modernization efforts. Among other steps, the United States is encouraged by the Indian government's consideration of possible trademark law amendments that would facilitate India's accession to the Madrid Protocol. The United States encourages the continuation of efforts to reduce patent application backlogs and streamline patent opposition proceedings. ”

“ As a result, the Administration will initiate formal consultations with India under WTO dispute settlement procedures in the near future. Moreover, India's industrial property laws continue to fall well short of providing adequate and effective protection. In particular, the Administration looks to India to enact and enforce modern patent and trademark legislation. India has modern copyright legislation but improvements continue to be necessary in the enforcement area. ”

“ No branch of our government is of greater importance to the progress of the country than the patent office, provided that office is intelligently administered. When the patent office is used, however, for an extension of the nostrum business, founded on the abuse of patent and trade-mark laws, it becomes a menace to the public health. The objects of the patent law are being defeated by the practices of the patent office. ”

“ First, the United States supports patent systems that incorporate efficient patent procedures and foster high-quality patents, and, in that connection, urges India to improve and streamline its patent opposition procedures. Specifically, under India's patent regime, the same interested person may, at minimal cost, challenge a patent through both pre-grant and post-grant opposition proceedings on any of eleven enumerated grounds, including by citing the same grounds in both pre- and post-grant challenges. ”

“ With respect to its application to any entity described in paragraph (1) , any surcharge or fee charged under subsection (c) or (d) shall not be higher than the surcharge or fee required of any other entity under the same or substantially similar circumstances. (i) (1) The Director shall maintain, for use by the public, paper, microform, or electronic collections of United States patents, foreign patent documents, and United States trademark registrations arranged to permit search for and retrieval of information. ”

“ Similar functions are performed with respect to the registration of trademarks. The Patent and Trademark Office has no jurisdiction over questions of infringement and the enforcement of patents, nor over matters relating to the promotion or utilization of patents or inventions. ”

“ In particular, with respect to patents relevant to a particular standard under development, such measures include a provision that encourages non-participant holders of such patents to disclose the patents and provisions regarding requests for licensing declarations from holders of such patents. The United States is concerned by any suggestion that standards-related disclosure and licensing obligations extend to patent holders electing not to participate in standards development. ”