Intellectual Property (IP) protection revised to upgrade the professional charges of the facilitators

o protect and promote Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) of Startups and to encourage innovation and creativity among them, Government of India had launched a Scheme for facilitating Start-Ups Intellectual Property Protection (SIPP) in 2016. The scheme facilitated startups in filing and processing of their patent, design or trademark application through the assistance of IP Facilitators, whose fee was borne by the Office of the Controller General of Patents Designs and Trademarks, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, Government of India. After its successful implementation resulting in a significant increase in IP fillings by Startups the Scheme was extended for a period of three years till 31st March 2023. To further encourage the IP facilitators to provide quality services to Startups in order to increase the number of IP Applications filed by startups, the scheme has now been revised and facilitation fees has been notably increased by at least 100%. The revised scheme is applicable from 02 November 2022 and revised fees structure vis-à-vis the old scheme is as under:

Stage of Payment		Patents		Trademarks		Designs
FEE (in INR)		2016	2022	2016	2022	2016	2022
At the time of filing of Application		10,000	15,000	2,000	3,000	2,000	3,000
At the time of final disposal of Applications	Without Opposition	10,000	25,000	2,000	5000	2,000	5,000
	With Opposition	15,000	35,000	4,000	10000	4,000	10,000

  In addition to above scheme, IP filling by startups are also encouraged by providing with fee rebates under respective IP legislations. Startups are provided 80% fee rebate in filing patent applications and 50% fee rebate in filling trademark application. In addition, there are also provisions for fast-track examination of patent applications. Resultantly, there has been a significant increase in IP activities by Startups in last 6 years:

• Patent applications filed by Startups have increased from 179 in 2016-17 to 1500 in 2021-22;
• Trade Mark applications filed by Startups have increased from 4 in 2016-17 to 8649 in 2021-22;
• From 2016-17 to October 2022, 7430 patent applications and 28749 Trade mark applications have been filed by Startups.

As on 30 September 2022, INR 380.81 Lakhs have been disbursed as fees to the facilitators assisting the Startups in IP fillings. The revised fee structure will further augment the filing of IP applications by the Startups through the assistance of IP facilitators offering effective and quality service.