Patent agent exam eligibility in India is governed by section 126 of Indian Patent Act. Following are the criteria that a candidate should satisfy to become a patent agent in India.
- The candidate should be a citizen of India.
- The candidate should be at least 21 years old.
- The candidate must have a science or technology based academic background. This means that they should have a degree in one or more of Science, Engineering, or Technology fields from any university established under Indian law and being in force while applying for the patent agent examination. The candidate may also have an equivalent qualifications specified by the Central Government.
- However, if the candidate has not yet graduated and is a final year student, they can still apply for being a patent agent if they can produce their degree certificate with the marks card within 2 months from the date when the patent agent examination results are announced.
- Further, the candidate should have passed the qualifying examination, that is, the patent agent exam.
- As an alternative to passing the patent agent exam, the candidate should have functioned either as an examiner or as a Controller for a total period of at least 10 years but should not be holding this capacity when making the application for patent agent (This possibility is rarely observed though).
- He should have paid the prescribed fees for the patent agent registration. At the time of writing this article, the one-time fee for registering as patent agent is Rs. 3200 (with Rs. 800 as annual charges for maintaining the patent agent capacity).
Hope this article was helpful in understanding the eligibility criteria for the Indian Patent Agent Exam!
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