The Indian Patent Office has proposed a very substantial increase in fees across the board for patent matters. The proposal is for a 100% increase in official fees and it seems likely that this will be implemented before the end of July 2013. Indian official fees for IP matters are typically fairly low, but this does however offer clients with an interest in registering patents in India, with a small window of opportunity to apply in the next 6 weeks and save on filing fees.
The hike is probably unavoidable following the recent efforts by the Indian Patent Office to improve its service offering on patent searching and examination, with the numbers of searchers and examiners being increased and training improved significantly to cope with backlogs and help the Indian Patent Office to meet its international obligations.
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