Govt proposes to significantly reduce fees for IPRs for MSMEs, startups

The government has proposed to reduce fees for various intellectual property rights like patents and designs for micro, small and medium enterprises and startups to promote innovation, Commerce and Industry Ministry said on Monday. An individual, group or industry has to pay fees at different levels of intellectual property rights (IPR) application fillings.

As per the proposal, fees for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and startups for filing of patent applications will be reduced to Rs 1,600 or Rs 1,750 from Rs 4,000 or Rs 4,400. For expedited examination, it will be reduced to Rs 8,000 from Rs 25,000 currently. Similarly, for renewal of patents, the fees will be reduced.

For design applications filing, fees for MSMEs and startups will be reduced to Rs 1,000 from Rs 2,000, the ministry said. For Geographical Indications (GI), fees was proposed to cut to nil for filing of application, issuance of certificate and renewal of GI from the current Rs 500, Rs 100 and Rs 1,000, respectively.

It also said domestic filing for patents has increased from 22 per cent in 2013-14 to 34 per cent in 2018-19. "Awareness programmes for IP are being conducted at schools, colleges, universities, R&D institutes and industry clusters," it said.

The multi-pronged strategies have been used to address the issue of pendency in IP applications, including manifold augmentation of manpower and streamlining of procedures, it added.

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