Page 28 - WINGS OF AGRI-INNOVATIONS

This further enabled the Indian Patent Office for reduction in pendency and backlog in the examination from
the present 5 to 7 years to just 18 months by March, 2018.
The specification of internal procedures during 2005-2010 is a direct result of implementing the IP management
policy of the ICAR. The internal procedures of the ZTM & BPD Unit, ICAR-IARI were further streamlined from
2011 to 2013 under expert guidance. These new systems and procedures enabled granting of maximum
numbers of patents in 2017-18.
The ZTM & BPD Unit has played a pivotal role in sensitizing the scientific community about the benefits
of filing patents and IP management by conducting number of workshops and more than 50 awareness
programs. These workshops and awareness programs were well attended and received by the participants
who came from across the India. This has helped in eliciting the interest of more scientists to generate
new IPRs on the basis of their research that with potential of commercialization. As a result, the research
conducted during this time resulted in a greater number of patent filings.

To accelerate and ease the process of patent filing from the ICAR institutes, various efforts have been made
Figure 2.1: Patent filing trend from 1950-2020 to promote the IP filing process with the establishment of ZTM & BPD Unit, IARI. The Institute Technology
Management Committee (ITMC) was constituted for screening and filing of patents. Special steps have been
As depicted in figure 2.1, there has been a sluggish growth with only twenty patent applications filed during taken to strengthen ZTM & BPD Unit with respect to the resources required for procuring patent databases,
the period from 1950 to 2000. The reason for this low number of patents filed during this period is attributed market databases, and skilled manpower. Great emphasis has also been laid on the skill development and
to the fact that the outcome of all scientific research and technology development was freely available for training of the IP staff.
the public good, irrespective of their commercialisation by the public or private sectors, hence there was less
awareness and sensitization concerning the importance of intellectual property in academic settings. After
the year 2000, the trend of patent applications surged up owing to IP awareness workshops at academic
institutions level. Academic institutes became more sensitized towards the importance and utility of IP and
constituted their institutional IP policies. Moreover, as a direct consequence of the Ayyangar Committee
report of September, 1959, the patent regime saw the introduction of the Patents Act, 1970. Under the
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original statute, agrochemical products and pharmaceutical products were not eligible for patents. However,
with the Patents (Amendment) Act, 1999 that was brought into force retrospectively from 1st January,
1995. The amended Act provided for filing of applications for product patents in drugs, pharmaceuticals
and agrochemicals. It was only when this statute was amended and the bar on patent eligibility of certain
inventions was removed, did the patent filing in the agrochemical domain got boosted.

The Zonal Technology Management Centre (ZTMC) and Institute Technology Management Unit (ITMU)
played active roles in advising scientists on patent filing procedures such as drafting, preparing FER responses,
attending hearings, and post-grant maintenance. As shown in the figure, a fluctuating trend of patent filings
is evident, nevertheless, an upsurge can be noticed after the year 2000, wherein 11 patents were filed in the
single year 2001-02 and the same trend was also found in 2011-12. From 2005 to 2020, more than 25 patent
applications have been filed in the agro-chemicals segment.
The proactive approach of the ZTM & BPD Unit proved to be potentially successful, as number of patents Figure 2.2: Domain-wise percentage of patent application filings from 1950-2020
granted increased over time. The increase in the number of grants during 2011-2020 is around 2.5 times
higher than that observed from 2001-2010. Meanwhile, the patent office of the Government of India has
also expedited the process of examination and prosecution of the patent applications with the help of 456
new examiners of patents in various fields of technology. The percentage-wise distribution of patent applications shows a picture of 38% share of patent applications
falling under the category of chemicals (Fig 2.2). Chemicals, in this context, mean agrochemicals, i.e.
formulations used for seed treatments and pest management, mosquito larvicidal compositions, etc. After
chemicals, the major share of the applications come from the field of mechanical engineering (15%), which
6. The Patents Act 1970, along with the Patents Rules 1972, came into force on 20th April 1972, replacing the Indian Patents and Designs Act 1911. includes agricultural implements and machines related to threshing, animal feed block formations etc. The
The Patents Act was largely based on the recommendations of the Ayyangar Committee Report headed by Justice N. Rajagopala Ayyangar. One third category is biotechnology (14%), which stands for the inventions related to biotechnological applications.
of the recommendations was the allowance of only process patents with regard to inventions relating to drugs, medicines, food and chemicals.

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