The Patent Agent Exam in India: Essential and Interesting Facts

The Office of Controller General of Patents, Designs, and Trade Marks (CGPDTM) regularly conducts the Patent Agent Examination on behalf of the government of India, enabling graduates in science, engineering, and technology to qualify and register as Patent Agents.

A registered Patent Agent can represent a client (individuals or company) in all matters related to filing patent applications and other requests or correspondence, replying to communications from the Patent Office, filing documents, ensuring renewal of granted patents, etc. Not being a lawyer, a Patent Agent cannot represent a client in a court of law. A Patent Agent is also not a paralegal. An individual can file and prosecute a patent application on his own but may encounter difficulties when faced with objections or queries from the Patent Office.

Post amendments in the law in 2005, a lawyer cannot be registered as a Patent Agent (Agents on the register of the Patent Office before the amendment continue to be on the register) unless he/she has a degree in science and qualifies the stipulated examination. Unlike the US jurisdiction, there is no title such as 'Patent Attorney' in India, though the term is extensively used to describe persons with legal backgrounds who qualify the examination.

Qualifying as a Patent Agent is an attractive career option for millions of science and engineering graduates in India. It is not a competitive examination as some tend to believe. It has a low entry barrier - the prescribed qualifications include (i) a graduate degree in science, engineering, technology, or equivalent (ii) a national of India (iii) attained an age of 21 years (iv) must qualify the examination conducted for enrolling Patent Agents. Most of the preparation material (Patent Act, Rules, Manual, guidelines, previous years' question papers, etc.) is available in the form of downloadable pdf files from the website of CGPDTM. 4 to 6 months of intense study of the Patent regime of India prepares a candidate for the exam. Once qualified, a Patent Agent can continue to be on the register subject to payment of annual fees. It is an attractive and versatile career: A person may choose to go for the qualification in the early or later stage of the career (even post-retirement) and can work online or offline, independently or in an institute or company.

The format and frequency of the examination have undergone several changes over the years. The exam was held once every year from 2000 to 2006. In 2007 and 2008, it was held twice a year. After 2011, the exam was held irregularly - in 2013, 2016, 2018, 2022. This was due to factors such as legal disputes involving candidates for the exam and the CGPDTM representing the Union of India as well as the COVID-19 pandemic. The wranglings and other stakeholder interactions have resulted in changes to the format of the exam over the years as follows:

• 2013: The weightage for viva was reduced to 50 marks (earlier, the written papers and viva carried an equal weightage of 100 marks each
• 2016: Introduction of OMR sheet for recording answers. Only candidates qualifying by way of minimum 50% marks in Paper-1 and 2 were eligible for viva, which was conducted later.
• Although 60% overall marks are required to qualify the exam, no minimum marks criteria is associated with viva. However, one cannot skip viva even after scoring the qualifying marks of 150 in papers 1 and 2.
• In 2025, questions on the Designs Act will be included in the examination for the first time.

For all its attractiveness, the career is overlooked by a majority of the eligible persons. For example, in the Patent Agent examination that was conducted in May 2022, a total of 7718 applications were received, the number of candidates who appeared for the examination was 2972 (Paper-1) and 2921 (Paper-2). 1342 candidates qualified for the viva, while 1026 finally qualified. Even when the number of examination centers was increased to 9 in 2023 (addition of Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Lucknow), the response of eligible candidates continued to be very poor. This is a dismally low number, considering that the recent spike in patent filing activity necessitates a much larger number of qualified professionals to represent the inventors in Patent Offices.

The number of Patent Agents on the register maintained with the Patent Office is less than 5000. The number of active patent professionals on the register of USPTO is more than 52,000.

Another round of Patent Agent examination is just around the corner, in January 2025. Can we expect a large turnout this time?