Amendment in Design Rules and Fee

Controller General of Patents, Design and Trade Marks, Mr. Chaitanya Prasad, has issued a Public Notice on 1 January 2015, wherein it has been put forth that, from December 31, 2014, Official Fees for filing a new Design application as well as other proceedings of Design has been amended. It has also been mentioned that applicants have been divided into two main categories and fees shall depend on the type of applicant.

Highlights of amendments in Design rules:

• Applicants have been divided into two main categories namely: “natural person” and “other than a natural person(s)” categories. The second category of applicants has been further divided into two sub-categories 1.) “small entity” 2.) “others except for small entity” and the fee structure is amended accordingly.
• The new form – 24 has been introduced which has to be submitted with all new applications for claiming the status of a small entity.

Addition of new clauses in Design Rules:

• A new clause has been inserted after rule 2(c) as under:

‘(ca) “person other than a natural person”, shall include a “small entity”;’

• Another clause has been inserted after rule 2(e) which defines the definition of small entities as under:

‘(ea) “small entity” means,

1. 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 the section (7) of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Act, 2006 (27 of 2006); and
2. In case of an enterprise engaged in providing or rendering of services, and enterprises where the investment is not more than the limit specified for a medium enterprise under clause (b) of sub-section (1) of the section (7) of the Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises Development Act, 2006 (27 of 2006);

• In rule 5(2) after clause (d), two new clauses have been inserted, as under:-

1. “(e) in case an application processed by a natural person is fully or partly transferred to a person other than a natural person, the difference, if any, in the scale of fees between the fees charged from a natural person and the fees chargeable from the person other than the natural person in the same matter shall be paid by the new applicant with the request for transfer.
2. (f) in case an application processed by a small entity is fully or partly transferred to a person other than a natural person (except a small entity), the difference, if any, in the scale of fees between the fees charged from the small entity and the fees chargeable from the person other than a natural person (except a small entity) in the same matter shall be paid by the new applicant with the request made for such transfer.”,

• In rule 6 after sub-rule (1), the following proviso has been inserted,:-

“Provided that in the case of small entity, every document, for which a fee has been specified, shall be accompanied by Form-24.”

Amendments in Design Fees:

The following table gives the detailed fee structure after the amendment:

The notification can be seen here.