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342 Economic Survey 2021-22

Figure 12: Number of patent examiners in 2020
13704

No of Patent Examiners 8132

1666
932 815 615 410 402 368 335 312

China US Japan Korea Germany India Australia Russia Canada UK Brazil

Source: World Intellectual Property Indicators, 2021

9.65 Another issue which leads to delays in the process is that there is no time limit prescribed
in the statute for controller to conduct a hearing to determine the validity of responses to the
FER and any outstanding objections which may not have been adequately addressed by the
applicant. It was found that this usually takes about 6-9 months. Additionally, the decision after
the opposition hearing by the controller which should usually happen in 1 month typically takes
about 3-4 months. Therefore, a fixed timeline for grant after the opposition hearing should be
put in place.