Get your business venture registered under Micro, Small And Medium Enterprises Development Act, 2006 (MSMED, Act 2006) to avail government subsidiaries in India

Recently, the Central Government by exercising the powers conferred by section 159 of the Patents Act, 1970 (39 of 1970), has made Patents Amendment Rules, 2014. The Patents Amendment Rules, 2014 has been published by the Government of India, Ministry of Commerce and Industry (Department of Industrial  Policy and Promotion) by notification vide dated 28/02/2014 in Part II, Section 3, Sub-Section (i) of the Gazette Of India, Extraordinary on 28-2-2014.

The Indian patent office has announced new patent fee schedule and has proposed some amendments via Patents (Amendment) Rules 2014 for filing patent applications before the Indian Patent Office and for prosecuting Indian patent applications before the IPO. The Patents (Amendment) Rules 2014 has been notified and the patent amendments are published in Gazette Of India, and the effective date of publication is Feb 28, 2014.

In accordance with the new patent amended rules, if the patent applicant files patent application in physical mode before the patent office, they have to bear extra 10% percent additional official patent fees. Currently it seems, the Indian Patent Office wants the patent firms, intellectual property law firms, patent attorneys and the patent applicants to file patents via online e-filling route as the patent fees is reduced when the patent applications and other patent forms are filed via e-filing.

In rule 2 of the Patents Rules, 2003 (hereinafter referred to as the principal rules), after clause (d), the following clause has been introduced:
‘(da) ” person other than a natural person” shall include a “small entity”;
(ii) after clause (t), the following clause shall be inserted, namely:—

‘(fa) “small entity” means,-

(i) in case of an enterprise engaged in the manufacture or production of goods, an enterprise where the investment in plant and machinery does not exceed the limit specified for a medium enterprise under clause (a) of sub-section (1) of section 7 of the Micro, Small and Medium  Enterprises Development Act, 2006 (27 of 2006); and

(ii) in case of an enterprise engaged in providing or rendering of services, an enterprise where the investment in equipment is not more than the limit specified for medium enterprises under clause (b) of sub-section (1) of section 7 of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Act, 2006.

The word “enterprise” means an industrial undertaking or a business concern or any other establishment, by whatever name called, engaged in the manufacture or production of goods, in any manner, pertaining to any industry specified in the First Schedule to the Industries (Development and Regulation) Act, 1951 (65 of 1951) or engaged in providing or rendering of any service or services in such an industry.

However, in calculating the investment in plant and machinery, the cost of pollution  control, research and development, industrial safety devices and such other things as may be specified by notification under the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Act, 2006 (27 of2006), shall be excluded.

MSME Registration under Micro, Small And Medium Enterprises Development Act, 2006 (MSMED, Act 2006)

No.	Type of Enterprise	Manufacturing Industry	Service Industry
		(Investment in Plant and Machinery)	(Investment in Equipments)
1	Micro	Does not exceed Rs. 25 Lakh	Does not exceed Rs. 10 Lakh
2	Small	Exceeds Rs. 25 Lakh but does not exceed Rs. 5 Crore	Exceeds Rs. 10 Lakh but does not exceed Rs. 2 Crore
3	Medium	Exceeds Rs. 5 Crore but does not exceed Rs. 10 Crore	Exceeds Rs. 2 Crore but does not exceed Rs. 5 Crore

 Provisional Registration:

Provisional registration is granted to a unit at its pre-investment period to enable it to take necessary steps to apply for financial credit, land or an industrial set, water, power or telephone connections, etc.

Permanent / Final Registration:

A provisionally registered industrial unit is a unit when it is about to start the production  and apply for grant of Permanent / Final Registration. An existing and functioning industrial unit is eligible to apply for Permanent / Final Registration without going for provisional registration processes.

• Form 7A introduced for filing Pre-grant opposition
• Form 28 (Declaration by Small Entity)

Online Patent Filing:

The comprehensive online patent filing was launched in December 2012. However, many a times the online patent filing system is not working and suffers from many disadvantages:

• For filing online patent forms the patent applicant needs to procure digital signature without which the patent forms cant be submitted.
• Although the patent forms are filed online, the patent applicant needs to send originally signed  hard copy of the patent forms to the Indian Patent Office in accordance with the jurisdiction.
• Many a times, while submitting the patent documents, database or server error takes place which is very frustrating.
• The patent applicant cant upload Form 3 directly and the manual entry of too many countries in Form 3 is pain staking.
• There is no online technical support from the Intellectual Property Office.

The need of the hour is that the Indian Patent Office (IPO) must provide 24×7 online support to the patent applicants with detailed guidelines on how to use online patent filing user interface. Generally it is noted that on weekends the patent database servers are down for maintenance.  

My personal experience after submitting online patent specification is good :)  . However, the whole online filing database and server has to be maintained properly by the IPO as there will be increase in online patent filings in the days to come.