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<\/p>\r\n The Indian Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) published the Patents Amendment Rules (2020) on October 19, 2020, and one of these rules is as follows:<\/span><\/p>\r\n Rule 131: Filing of Annual Statement of Working (Form 27)<\/span><\/p>\r\n The amendment to Rule 131<\/u><\/span><\/p>\r\n (1) Before the amendment:<\/span><\/p>\r\n Patentees and licensees of Indian patents are required to submit an annual statement of working of the patented invention, also referred to as \u201cForm 27\u201d or \u201cSoW\u201d for its form number or abbreviation.<\/span><\/p>\r\n Since it was required to submit the Statement of Working (SoW) \u00a0for the period from January 1 to December 31 of a calendar year by March 31 of the following year \u00a0for our clients who entrusted us to handle the annuities payment for their Indian patents, we invited them to submit their annual \u00a0SoW from the end of a year to the beginning of the following year.<\/span><\/p>\r\n (2) After the amendment<\/span><\/p>\r\n \u3000(2-1) Change \u00a0to fiscal year and Extension of deadline for submission of SoW<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\r\n Under the new rules, the \u00a0year involved has been changed from calendar year (January 1 to December 31) to Indian fiscal year (April 1 to March 31 of the following year), and the deadline \u00a0for submission of SoW is now within six months from the expiry of each fiscal year, i.e. within six months from March 31 of the end of the fiscal year. Therefore, the SoW for the previous year must be submitted by September 30 of the following year. In this regard, we will be sending invitations \u00a0to the clients who have entrusted us to handle the annuities payment for their Indian patents to submit their annual \u00a0SoW \u00a0on or after April 1 after the end of the fiscal year.<\/span><\/p>\r\n In addition, it is no longer necessary to submit the annual SoW during the fiscal year in which the patent is registered, and there is no ambiguity as to when the first SoW should be submitted for a newly registered Indian patent. For example, if an Indian patent is registered during the current fiscal year, i.e., April 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021, the first SoW will have to be submitted by September 30, 2022 (see the table below):<\/span><\/p>\r\n
\r\nRevised Patent Rules in India (2020): Submission of Statement of Working (Form 27)<\/span>
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