In a public notice released on September 05, 2016, the Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trademarks (hereinafter referred to as the 'CGPDTM'), has intimated all stakeholders that in order to facilitate faster processing of applications for registration of designs, First Examination Reports (FER) and subsequent office communications shall be communicated in the e-mail or digital address of the applicant/agent as mentioned in the address of service for respective design applications wherever available.
This is a welcome move and will certainly go a long way to fasten up the process of applications for registrations of Designs and this provision of sending First Examination Reports to applicant/ agent through e-mail has commenced from September 5, 2016.
According to the Information Booklet published by the CGPDTM, the time period for acceptance of an application is six months which can subsequently be extended to another three months. The new notice pertaining to online correspondences between the Applicant and the registry will ensure that the whole process is expedited and the said time frame is reduced considerably.
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