Statement of Working | India | Patent

[OneHighCloud]

After grant in India, a statement of working on Form-27 is required to be submitted. A financial year (FY) for India is 1st April - 31st March.

The Statement of working is required to be periodically submitted at Indian Patent Office (IPO) by 30th September of the 4th FY for previous 3 FYs, till the patent is active. The FY in which the patent is granted is exempted. For more clarity pls refer to Indian Patent Act, 1970, Section 146 and Patents Rules, 2003, Rule 131.

This is a mandatory requirement in Indian Patent law.

Rules engine is not able to create this task and deadline. So, I created a procedure for this purpose. If like, please feel free to use and incorporate in any future PHPIP update.

Starting:

STEP 1: Create an event "Statement of working" | Event Code "SAU"

STEP 2: Create a recurring rule:

Step 3: CREATE Procedure (I ran MYSQL query)

DELIMITER $$
CREATE DEFINER=phpip@% PROCEDURE insert_recurring_form27 (
IN P_trigger_id INT,
IN P_rule_id INT,
IN P_responsible CHAR(16),
IN P_user CHAR(16)
)
proc: BEGIN
DECLARE StartDate, DueDate, ExpiryDate DATE DEFAULT NULL;
DECLARE GrantYear, FilingYear INT DEFAULT NULL;

SELECT estart.event_date, matter.expire_date 
INTO StartDate, ExpiryDate
FROM matter
JOIN event estart ON estart.matter_id = matter.id 
AND estart.id = P_trigger_id;

IF StartDate IS NULL THEN
    LEAVE proc;
END IF;

SET GrantYear = CASE 
    WHEN MONTH(StartDate) >= 4 
    THEN YEAR(StartDate) 
    ELSE YEAR(StartDate) - 1 
END;

SET FilingYear = GrantYear + 1;

WHILE FilingYear <= YEAR(ExpiryDate) DO
    SET DueDate = STR_TO_DATE(CONCAT(FilingYear + 3, '-09-30'), '%Y-%m-%d');

    IF DueDate > ExpiryDate THEN
        LEAVE proc;
    END IF;

    INSERT INTO task (
        trigger_id, 
        code, 
        due_date, 
        detail, 
        rule_used, 
        assigned_to, 
        creator, 
        created_at, 
        updated_at
    ) 
    VALUES (
        P_trigger_id, 
        'SAU', 
        DueDate, 
        CONCAT('Form-27 filing for financial years ', FilingYear, '-', FilingYear + 3), 
        P_rule_id, 
        P_responsible, 
        P_user, 
        NOW(), 
        NOW()
    );

    SET FilingYear = FilingYear + 3;
END WHILE;

END proc$$

DELIMITER ;

STEP 4: Make changes in "event_after_insert" trigger

From

ELSEIF tr_task = 'REN' THEN
-- Recurring renewal is the only possibilty here, normally
CALL insert_recurring_renewals(NEW.id, tr_id, BaseDate, tr_responsible, NEW.creator);
END IF;
END LOOP create_tasks;

To

ELSEIF tr_task = 'REN' THEN
CALL insert_recurring_renewals(P_trigger_id, tr_id, BaseDate, tr_responsible, P_user);
ELSEIF tr_task = 'SAU' THEN
CALL insert_recurring_form27(P_trigger_id, tr_id, tr_responsible, P_user);
END IF;
END LOOP create_tasks;

STEP 5: Make changes in "recreate_tasks" procedure

From

ELSEIF tr_task = 'REN' THEN
-- Recurring renewal is the only possibilty here, normally
CALL insert_recurring_renewals(P_trigger_id, tr_id, BaseDate, tr_responsible, P_user);
END IF;
END LOOP create_tasks;

To

ELSEIF tr_task = 'REN' THEN
CALL insert_recurring_renewals(NEW.id, tr_id, BaseDate, tr_responsible, NEW.creator);
ELSEIF tr_task = 'SAU' THEN
CALL insert_recurring_form27(NEW.id, tr_id, tr_responsible, NEW.creator);
END IF;
END LOOP create_tasks;

I am not a professional developer. So, please run tests. The above is working for me.

[jjdejong]

Thank you for this contribution. Indeed phpIP lacked the possibility of creating recurring tasks other than renewals. I'll try to find some time to test your contribution. The Indian situation being very specific, we didn't put resources into developing something.

As to "good practice" for events and tasks in phpIP, "Statement of Working" shouldn't be a task of its own (i.e. have a dedicated name). The task to create would rather be "Produce", with the detail "Statement of working" (which is how we implement this manually in our system). But I understand the statement of working is something similar to renewal fees, for which there is indeed a specific name.

By the way, why the code "SAU" for "Statement of Working"?

[OneHighCloud]

I am glad to be able to contribute something to this wonderful software.

The due date for this "Statement of working" is fixed which is 30th September. Applicant/Licensee are required to submit the statement on or before this date. But, rules create deadlines based on trigger event and a predefined interval (days, months, years). Plus 3 years of recurrence was making it impossible to get correct deadlines for this task.

Because from original code, tasks != 'REN' and trigger event is 'GRT', this task is still listed under "Open Tasks" under "Granted" event header.

Original procedure "insert_recurring_renewals" is certainly a motivation for this procedure.

This requirement has direct links to Compulsory License. Not only India but many countries have similar compliances after grant, including some European members.

For the code, I started with "Statement After Utility grant". Therefore, the code "SAU". Later, description "Statement of Working" appeared more appropriate.

[papoteur-mga]

@OneHighCloud Thanks for the contribution.
I agree that this has to be dealt within the application. In practice, do you know how this is dealt by other software? Are they managed in the same workflow as renewals?