In a move to increase transparency in its transactions and to authenticate the documents delivered by IPO to the stakeholders, the office of Controller General of Patent Designs and TradeMarks (CGPDTM) issued a public notice (No.CG/F/Public Notice/2014/57) stating the following,

1. The system of QR Code(s) is further extended to other documents and henceforth the same will be printed in the Application Filing Receipts (AFRs) issued by the office of CGPDTM. This facility enables the verification of the contents of the AFRs by the applicants/stakeholders.

2. With the idea to eventually phase out the issue of AFRs by post, CGPDTM has come up with the idea of upgrading the system of intimation of AFRs through e-mails and SMS. Therefore, the intimation regarding the issue of AFR's is made available to the applicant/ agent on record immediately through e-mail (which will be extended to SMS in due course). For the enablement of this service, the applicants/stakeholders are advised to register their official mobile number as well as their official e-mail address with the patent office at the time of filing of the documents/ fee payment at the cash counter, more specifically at the time of CBR generation.

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