The online patent filing, introduced by Kamal Nath, Union minister of commerce and Industry in July 2007, is yet to take off with very few applicants opting for the electronic system. Hardly six per cent of the total patent applications filed with the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) of India has been through the e-filing. The latest figures with the IPO show that only 1000 e filing has been made till July 2008.

The rate of e-filing is a meagre six per cent of the total filings though the patent office announced in 2008 that it has a target of 97 per cent online patent application filing in a couple of years. P H Kurian, controller general of patents, designs and trademarks and geographical indications (CGPDTM), said: "The electronic filing system is used only by a small number of applicants. This has to be improved and our plans are to bring in more e-supported communication systems in day-to-day procedures."

Patent attorneys working closely with both the multinational and domestic pharma companies say that e-filing has to be more user-friendly. Many a time, the link gets broken in the midst of the filing process said a patent expert. The e-filing system mandates the applications should be endorsed through digital signature and that makes the applicants reluctant to use online facility as many of the clients do not have their own digital signature. A digital signature is a type of asymmetric cryptography to authenticate the messages sent through an insecure channel to provide the receiver reason to believe the message was sent by the claimed sender.

"The patent office should think of removing the mandate for digital signature, as many of our clients informed that the procedure to prepare a digital signature itself is time consuming," said Varun Chhonkar, CEO with the Mumbai-based intellectual property consultancy firm, IP Feathers.

Meanwhile, the IPO is planning to set up its main server to its online and computer facilities in Mumbai to ensure non-stop power back up for its operations. At present, the main server computer is established at New Delhi, and the power shortage in the location is one of the reasons for frequent problems in the online patent application filing system.

The IPO is also planning to introduce e-governance system to issue notices to the applicants and clients through email and to conduct discussions on the patent applications through chat services. "Using the online services like email and chats, we can reduce the time taken for various procedures. This will also make our process easier to digitise the records in dedicated modules," said Kurian. The e-governance system will also ensure speedy disposal of applications, almost within 24 hours from the time of filing, provided there are no oppositions and the application is complete.

The revenue received till mid 2008 from online payment gateway for applications filed online is approximately Rs 2.54 crore. The IP office has collected Rs 220 crore revenue from its various activities in the financial year 2008-09 and is expected to touch Rs 250 crore revenue in the current financial year. The total expenditure of the office including the plan expenditure is only around Rs 75 crore at present.