India and European Patent Office sign MoU on Bilateral Cooperation in IPRs

A one-year Work Plan in pursuance of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Bilateral Cooperation between the Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks (CGPDTM) and the European Patent Office (EPO) was signed here today by Dr. Ajay Dua, Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP), Ministry of Commerce & Industry and Professor Alain Pompidou, President of the European Patent Office, in the presence of Shri Kamal Nath, Minister of Commerce & Industry. The Work Plan includes programmes for Human Resource development, Automation and Data Exchange between the two offices.

The EPO is a top level Patent Office in the world and has a Membership of 31 countries. It is an important International Patents Search Authority and International Preliminary Examining Authority under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT).

An important component of the cooperation programme which will run from mid-2007 to mid-2008 is the provision for training at the European Patent Office for 10 senior patent examiners from India; and training by 3 EPO experts of 20 to 30 patent examiners in India.

Source : Press Information Bureau

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