India probably has become the first country to have exclusive provisions in Patent legislation for STARTUPS, This amendment defines startup and the promised speeding up process.
Startup‖ means an entity, where-
(i) more than five years have not lapsed from the date of its incorporation or registration;
(ii) the turnover for any of the financial years, out of the aforementioned five years, did not exceed rupees twenty-five crores;
and it is working towards innovation, development, deployment or commercialisation of new products, processes or services driven by technology or intellectual property:
Provided further that the mere act of developing:
a. products or services or processes which do not have potential for commercialisation, or
b. undifferentiated products or services or processes, or
c. products or services or processes with no or limited incremental value for customers or workflow, would not be covered under this definition.
a. is about commercialisation, since no one can certify potential for commercialisation, it is reasonable to expect that a startup at pre-revenue stage is not eligible.
b. comes under innovative step, no issue on that,
c. incremental value to customer- this is entering totally new territory by the examiner.
Expedited examination of applications: it appears that in an expedited examination process the examiner has to prepare the examination report within two months, as opposed to three months taken in the ordinary process. The expediting option will be available for startups for a fee of INR 8000 as opposed to INR 4000, which is charged for ordinary examination.
Startup‖ means an entity, where-
(i) more than five years have not lapsed from the date of its incorporation or registration;
(ii) the turnover for any of the financial years, out of the aforementioned five years, did not exceed rupees twenty-five crores;
and it is working towards innovation, development, deployment or commercialisation of new products, processes or services driven by technology or intellectual property:
Provided further that the mere act of developing:
a. products or services or processes which do not have potential for commercialisation, or
b. undifferentiated products or services or processes, or
c. products or services or processes with no or limited incremental value for customers or workflow, would not be covered under this definition.
a. is about commercialisation, since no one can certify potential for commercialisation, it is reasonable to expect that a startup at pre-revenue stage is not eligible.
b. comes under innovative step, no issue on that,
c. incremental value to customer- this is entering totally new territory by the examiner.
Expedited examination of applications: it appears that in an expedited examination process the examiner has to prepare the examination report within two months, as opposed to three months taken in the ordinary process. The expediting option will be available for startups for a fee of INR 8000 as opposed to INR 4000, which is charged for ordinary examination.
