New Delhi, Aug 8 (IANS) In what could be worrying news for businesses, the commerce ministry Monday revealed that it had over 126,000 trademark dispute cases pending with it and that it lacked manpower to examine them.


"The backlog in the trade marks registry has arisen because of approximately 100 percent increase in the applications filed since 2001-02 and due to lack of adequate manpower," Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Jyotiraditya M. Scindia told the Lok Sabha.

Out of 122 sanctioned posts of officers of the rank of examiners and above in the trade marks registry, 71 posts were vacant, he said.

The ministry was in talks with recruitment agencies to hasten the hiring process in order to fill up the posts.

Also, the trade marks registry also reported that that over 8,000 registered trademark files were missing from its various offices.

Scindia said the ministry had introduced free search facilities and digitization of records to streamline the registration procedure and help applicants.