The government today said 12,690 applications seeking patent for food products and medicine inventions are pending mainly due to the shortage of manpower. In a written reply to the Lok Sabha, minister of state for Commerce and Industry Jyotiraditya Scindia said that grant of a patent is a quasi-judicial process and tends to be time consuming as it involves various steps like publication of the application and filing of requests for examination.

These applications are pending as on December 31, 2011 with the Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks.

He said that the government has completed the process of selection of 248 patent examiners. Mr Scindia said that in the last three years (2009-2011), 94 patents were granted to food products and 1,810 for medicines inventions.