Interpretation of the important decision of the Indian Intellectual Property Office on the removal of patent agents

In an unusual decision, Intellectual Property India has recently decided to remove a patent agent from the register of patent agents based on allegations of professional misconduct and a report by a relevant committee.

Case Background

• In this case, the patent agent failed to deliver the First Examination Report (FER) in time, which resulted in the applicant failing to respond within the official deadline, which in turn led to the patent application being deemed abandoned. Although the applicant hired a new patent agent and the patent application was restored, it still had an impact on the patent applicant in terms of time.

The Delhi court held that patent agents play a key role in the patent application process, including timely client communication and following procedural regulations. However, currently only the Indian Intellectual Property Office has the power to regulate the behavior of patent agents, and there is no clear procedure for dealing with improper behavior. At present, the court has revoked the deemed abandonment notice issued by the Indian Intellectual Property Office for this patent application and allowed the applicant to continue to respond to the examination opinion FER.