On January 3, 2023 the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) published the Draft Patent (2nd Amendment) Rules, 2024 inviting public comments on the Proposed Rules. As discussed here, these hastily drafted Rules, full of typos and ambiguity, seem to enforce the amendments introduced by the Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Act, 2023 and proposes to set up a new mechanism to hear complaints against offences under Sections 120, 122 and 123 of the Patent Act. The deadline to share comments on these proposed Rules is today.
In addition to the above post, Swaraj, Pranav and I prepared a detailed set of comments and shared them with the Ministry. Our comments are divided into three parts- General Comments on the lack of transparency behind the process adopted to formulate and draft these proposed amendments and the insufficiency of time to comment on them. Substantive Comments on the limited scope of the proposed adjudicatory mechanism, need of clarity on the qualification of the designated officers, ambiguity regarding the meaning of a few key terms, and the authority to grant compensation within the proposed Rules. And, Procedural & Clarificatory Comments pointing out the ambiguity in the timelines, some glaring typos, and the need for clarity regarding the mode of service of necessary documents. Readers can find our comments linked here. Also, we’d be happy to link to/share any other submitted submissions to the Ministry if anyone would like to share their comments with us.
Additionally, we would also like to mention that the Government has also published the Draft Trade Marks (1st Amendment) Rules, 2024 on January 10, 2024, inviting comments within 30 days i.e. February 9, 2024. The link for these Rules is here (pdf).
