The Controller General of Patents, Designs & Trade Marks (CGPDTM) has instructed the Intellectual Property (IP) officials to strictly comply with the legal formalities in prosecution of applications, in order to improve the quality of its services. The action comes as part of the controller general's effort to streamline functioning of the IP office.

The controller general, noticing instances like unauthorised persons prosecuting the applications and engaged for discussion and meeting by officials in their respective offices, has instructed through a circular that only the technical head who is the public face of the concerned IP office or the officials attached to him shall meet the general public or any other interested persons on general issues.

The CGPDTM has specially mentioned instances where the bona fide of the person prosecuting the application is not ascertained by the IP officials, communications are entertained from persons not authorised by law and applications are processed based on Power of Attorney executed by persons who are not duly authorised by the applicant.

"Needless to say that such practices are not only illegal but also create future litigations among the business entities," comments the CGPDTM in his circular.

The circular instructs that all the IP officials should ensure the bona fide of the persons who prosecute the applications before processing and the Power of Attorney accompanying the application is executed by authorised persons only.

As part of streamlining the office, the controller general has recently categorised the examiners and controllers in all four patent offices into technology groups with a group leader. The move will bring in uniformity in allotment of patent applications for examination at the patent offices and will ensure that the applications will be handled by the officials who have expertise in the particular subject.

According to the circular of CGPDTM, the group leader will receive required number of files from the record section based on the serial order of the request of examination pending under the group subject on the first Monday of every month. Files will be allotted to the group members after group discussion and the system will hasten the procedures for processing the applications, according to official sources.