A Step Ahead By IPO: Establishment Of New Office As ISA And IPEA

On 8th September, 2014, IPO inaugurated a new building to deal with the operations of the Patent Office as an International Searching Authority (ISA) and International Preliminary Examining Authority (IPEA) under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT). This introduction will not only accelerate the ISA and IPEA proceedings but it also helps in gaining IPO a step ahead among other IP countries viz. USPTO, EPO, JP etc. Further to this the IP Office also introduced a system called the 'Stack and Flow' which tracks the progress of the work happening in the Patent office and can be viewed on the website. The IPO has the distinction of being the first office in the world with such a system. This appears to be a huge boost for transparency in the working of the Patent Office as the process is now freely traceable. These are some extremely good initiatives that the IPO has put up.