Empanelment of Scientific Advisors under Indian Patent Act

The Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks (CGPDTM) office has made available to the public a list of Scientific Advisors. Applications were invited from interested persons having the required qualification and experience in the prescribed proforma for empanelment as Scientific Advisors as per Rule 103 of the Patents Rules, 2003 to offer technical assistance to various Courts in India under Section 115 of the Patents Act, 1970 on 10th September, 2009. You may refer my previous post here for further details on the eligibility of Scientific Advisors.

The (CGPDTM) notice provides list of Scientific Advisors (SA), selected as experts in various domains:

(1) Chemistry and Allied Sciences – 14 (SA)

(2) Biotechnology and Microbiology – 7 (SA)

(3) Mechanical and Allied Subjects – 7 (SA)

(4) Electronics and Related Subjects – 7 (SA)

As per Section 115 of the Indian Patent Act, in any suit for infringement or in any other litigation proceeding, the court may appoint an independent Scientific Advisor to assist the court in such matters and provide technical / scientific opinion to the court. The roll of such advisor’s has to be decided by the Patent Office and has to be updated annually.

The remuneration of the Scientific Advisor shall be fixed by the court and shall include the costs of making a report and a proper daily fee and any day on which the Scientific Advisor may be required to attend before the court, and such remuneration shall be defrayed out of moneys provided by Parliament by law for the purpose. (Section 115)

We would like to congratulate all the selected candidates, who would now be responsible to provide technical assistance to various Courts of India in complex technical matters. Our heartiest wishes to Dr. (Mrs.) R. Kalpana Sastry, the Course Director of PGD-IPTMA course (Post Graduate Diploma in Intellectual Property and Technology Management) at NAARM (National Academy of Agricultural Research and Management). It is pertinent to bring up here that she is one of the most erudite and worthy candidates to the best of my knowledge. She is currently working as Head of Agriculture Research System Management and Policies Division, NAARM. She is a Full Bright Scholar and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Fellow, Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok in Educational Technology. She holds PG Diploma in Patent Law from the National Academy of Legal Studies and Research (NALSAR). She has contributed enormously through her research papers and enlightening articles in various forums. She is also an active member of CAS-IP blog. We trust and believe that she will definitely outshine others.

We appreciate the efforts of the Indian Patent Office to bring in more transparency for the public and select such deserving experts from various parts of the country. With abet of these eminent personalities we expect that the Courts would confer better judgments and would work smoothly with excellence.