{"id":43262,"date":"2018-04-23T09:00:39","date_gmt":"2018-04-23T03:30:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/one\/?p=43262"},"modified":"2025-06-17T10:45:57","modified_gmt":"2025-06-17T05:15:57","slug":"patent-news-ford-round-car-smart-wheelchair-blackberry-snapchat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/patent-news-ford-round-car-smart-wheelchair-blackberry-snapchat\/","title":{"rendered":"Ford patents round car, Smart wheelchair patents, BlackBerry sues Snapchat, USPTO issues notice on patent subject matter eligibility, Patent tip of the Week and other news"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cFord\u2019s Round Car, Smart wheelchair for differently abled people, BlackBerry\u00a0sues Snapchat, FRAND case against Huawei and ZTE to proceed in UK, USPTO Issues Notice of Guidance on Subject Matter Eligibility, UK ratifies Hague Agreement, Mexican Design Law amended, to take effect from 27th<\/sup>April, 2018, Patent Tip of the week and other Weekly Patent News,\u201d presented by the Patent attorneys and experts of BananaIP Counsels, India\u2019s leading Patent Firm.<\/p>\n

Design Quote of the Week<\/h2>\n

\u201cIn an action of infringement of design, it is not necessary that the two designs must be identical on all points and they should be exactly the same<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 – Dart Industries Inc. vs. Cello Plastotech (12.05.2017 – MADHC): MANU\/TN\/1629\/2017<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Indian Patent Statistics<\/h2>\n

A total of 1003 patent applications have been published in the 16th<\/sup> issue of the patent journal marking a modest increase of about 13.07% in the total number of patent applications published. Out of the 1003 applications, 55 applications account for early publications while 948 applications account for ordinary publications or publications occurring after the 18 month period. A total of 231 applications have been granted this week as opposed 176 grants in the previous.<\/p>\n

Early Publications<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
City<\/strong><\/td>\nPrevious Week<\/strong><\/td>\nThis Week<\/strong><\/td>\nPercentage of change<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Delhi<\/td>\n1<\/td>\n2<\/td>\n100% increase<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Mumbai<\/td>\n45<\/td>\n23<\/td>\n48.88% decrease<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Chennai<\/td>\n14<\/td>\n26<\/td>\n85.71% increase<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Kolkata<\/td>\n9<\/td>\n4<\/td>\n55.55% decrease<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Total<\/strong><\/td>\n69<\/strong><\/td>\n55<\/strong><\/td>\n20.28% decrease<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Ordinary Publications<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
City<\/strong><\/td>\nPrevious Week<\/strong><\/td>\nThis Week<\/strong><\/td>\nPercentage of change<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Delhi<\/strong><\/td>\n237<\/td>\n196<\/td>\n17.29% decrease<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Mumbai<\/strong><\/td>\n93<\/td>\n200<\/td>\n115.05% increase<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Chennai<\/strong><\/td>\n472<\/td>\n383<\/td>\n18.85% decrease<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Kolkata<\/strong><\/td>\n16<\/td>\n169<\/td>\n956.25% increase<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Total<\/strong><\/td>\n818<\/strong><\/td>\n948<\/strong><\/td>\n15.89% increase<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

TOTAL PUBLICATIONS (Previous Week): 887<\/p>\n

TOTAL PUBLICATIONS (This Week): 1003<\/p>\n

Percentage difference: 13.07% increase<\/p>\n

First Examination Report (FER) Statistics <\/strong><\/p>\n

A total of 1265 FER\u2019s have been issued last week. Applicants and their agents can check if any of their patent applications have been examined by referring the journal available here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
City<\/strong><\/td>\nNo. of FER Issued<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Delhi<\/td>\n443<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Mumbai<\/td>\n184<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Chennai<\/td>\n411<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Kolkata<\/td>\n227<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Total<\/strong><\/td>\n1265<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

PUBLICATIONS UNDER GRANT<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
City<\/strong><\/td>\nPrevious Week<\/strong><\/td>\nThis Week<\/strong><\/td>\nPercentage of change<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Delhi<\/td>\n70<\/td>\n87<\/td>\n24.28% increase<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Mumbai<\/td>\n12<\/td>\n26<\/td>\n116.66% increase<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Chennai<\/td>\n58<\/td>\n74<\/td>\n27.58% increase<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Kolkata<\/td>\n36<\/td>\n44<\/td>\n22.22% increase<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Total<\/strong><\/td>\n176<\/strong><\/td>\n231<\/strong><\/td>\n31.25% increase<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Number of Applications published based on applicant city<\/strong><\/p>\n

Of the total 1003 patent applications published in the journal last week, Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kolkata have contributed a total of 90 applications. The total applications from each of the previously mentioned cities for the past week are as follows \u2013 25 from Bangalore, 20 from Mumbai, 14 each from Delhi and Hyderabad, 13 from Chennai and 4 from Kolkata.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
List of Cities<\/strong><\/td>\n1st<\/sup>\u00a0January 2018 \u2013 20th<\/sup> \u00a0April 2018<\/strong><\/td>\n14th<\/sup> April 2018 \u2013 20th<\/sup> April 2018<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Delhi<\/td>\n444<\/td>\n14<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Mumbai<\/td>\n293<\/td>\n20<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Bangalore<\/td>\n279<\/td>\n25<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Chennai<\/td>\n190<\/td>\n13<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Hyderabad<\/td>\n165<\/td>\n14<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Kolkata<\/td>\n69<\/td>\n4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Total number of applications published by the Indian Patent Office from the 1st of January 2018 till date: 11996<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  • Early publications: 1072<\/li>\n
  • Ordinary Publications: 10924<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Total number of patents granted by the Indian Patent Office from the 1st of January 2018 till date: 4818<\/strong><\/p>\n

      \n
    • Delhi \u2013 1853<\/li>\n
    • Mumbai \u2013 591<\/li>\n
    • Chennai \u2013 1463<\/li>\n
    • Kolkata \u2013 911<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      Indian Industrial Designs Statistics<\/h2>\n

      The designs office has registered a total of 203 designs this week. The total designs registered from the 1st<\/sup> of January 2018 till date now adds to a total of 3342 applications..<\/p>\n

      Total designs registered in the previous Week: 203<\/p>\n

      Total designs registered this Week: 203<\/p>\n

      Percentage Difference: No change<\/p>\n

      Total designs registered from the 1st of January 2018 till date: 3342<\/strong><\/p>\n

      Interesting Patents<\/h2>\n

      Ford\u2019s Round Car<\/strong><\/p>\n

      In an interesting yet weird invention by Ford Global Technologies, the motor company has filed a patent application in the US for an invention titled \u201cVEHICLE WITH ROUND PASSENGER COMPARTMENT\u201d. The patent application claims: “<\/em> A vehicle comprising: a wall having a cylindrical shape and surrounding a passenger compartment; a table in the passenger compartment; a circular track fixed in the compartment and extending around the table; and a plurality of seats mounted to and independently slidable along the track.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

      What makes this bizarre patent interesting is that entire car compartment\u00a0can be rotated, or the seats repositioned on the circular track they\u2019re mounted to. The description also highlights the presence of entry systems where one or more of the wall sections either slides or swings open, and a roof that can be retracted in a number of ways.<\/p>\n

      Smart wheelchair for differently abled people<\/strong><\/p>\n

      In the 16th<\/sup> issue of the official patent journal, an interesting invention caught our attention. The invention titled \u201cSmart wheelchair for differently abled people\u201d aims to make life as easy as possible for the differently abled. The abstract text of the Indian patent application 201821013483 is provided below:<\/p>\n

      \u201cEven in 21st century there is still a sector of people who find it difficult to even perform their daily activities as they need to be dependent on others for their locomotion. For such people wheelchair proves to be a boon to some extent. The wheelchairs presently available can be broadly classified into 2 types namely, push-based & joy-stick based. Push based are the ones where user need to be dependent on somebody else while joy-stick based are the advance version of it in which dependency on others is removed. Its a sad fact that there are no wheelchair for people suffering from paraplegia or quadriplegia or senior citizens. Our main focus is on them. Below mentioned stats tell us there ratio in our society is quite considerable. As per 2011 census in India, 2.21% population is disabled while there are 0.62 amputees per thousand people. Also population aged 60 & above is projected to be 19% in 2050according to the United Nations Population Division. The use of powered wheelchair with high intelligence can ease there life. We are developing wheelchair which can be operated using application based on any type of mobile devices. To control its movement we wacceleration and manual inputs from users. Our best option is with smart external input. We are trying to provide many such facilities while considering quadriplegia peoples to provide them comfort and ease of access so that as per their specified direction, movement of wheelchair will take place.\u201d (The abstract has been taken as is and has not been corrected for errors)<\/em><\/p>\n

      Patent Infringements, Disputes, Licensing and Settlements.<\/h2>\n

      BlackBerry\u00a0sues Snapchat<\/strong><\/p>\n

      After accusing Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp of infringing BlackBerry\u2019s patented technology, the Canadian company has now trained its guns towards Snapchat. In its latest suit against Snapchat, BlackBerry has alleged that Snap has breached upon six of its patents from 2012 and 2014.Two of these patents are among the 7 patents that are included in the charge against Facebook. The patents in question allegedly relate to UI and map enhancement for up-to-date mobile advertising methods and mobile devices. The map enhancement technology in particular is directed to the Snap Map released by Snapchat in June last year.<\/p>\n

      FRAND case against Huawei and ZTE to proceed in UK<\/strong><\/p>\n

      The attempt by Huawei and ZTE to evade a patent dispute with a Luxembourg based IP licensing company has been thwarted by a UK Court. Conversant Wireless Licensing had recently accused Chinese telecommunications companies Huawei and ZTE Corporation of infringing the UK designations of four of its European SEPs. Huawei and ZTE in an attempt to evade the dispute had questioned the jurisdictional legitimacy of the English courts. Justice Henry Carr however, rejected\u00a0the arguments put forth by the Chinese company and has announced that the Court would be hearing the case \u201cin the coming weeks\u201d in order to determine a remedy.<\/p>\n

      International Patent \/ Design Updates<\/h2>\n

      USPTO Issues Notice of Guidance on Subject Matter Eligibility<\/strong><\/p>\n

      The United States Patent and Trademark Office on Friday issued a\u00a0notice in the Federal Register\u00a0providing guidance to patent examiners on patent subject matter eligibility. As per the USPTO press release, the guidelines have been issued n response to a recent decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in\u00a0Berkheimer v. HP Inc.<\/em>, pertaining to subject matter eligibility.<\/p>\n

      The new guidance pertains to the second step of the Alice-Mayo framework for determining subject matter eligibility, and is focused on how examiners are to analyze and document a conclusion that a claim clement is \u201cwell-understood, routine, conventional\u201d during the patent examination process.<\/p>\n

      UK ratifies Hague Agreement <\/strong><\/p>\n

      United Kingdom\u2019s exit from the European Union brought in various questions with regard to the filings and prosecution of intellectual property in UK. It is now confirmed that UK has become a member of The Hague Agreement by ratifying it. However, based on the draft withdrawal agreement published recently, UK will be continue to be a part of the EUIPO until December 2020 hence it will not be necessary for applicants to pursue separate design applications before the EUIPO and UK design offices.<\/p>\n

      Mexican Design Law amended, to take effect from 27th<\/sup>April, 2018<\/strong><\/p>\n

      The amendments to the Industrial Property Law of Mexico are scheduled to take effect from the 27th<\/sup> of April 2018. In the amendments brought about, the total term of a registered design has been increased from 15 years to 25 years. However, this extension is not applicable at once, and is subject to renewals at 5 year intervals. Further, the official gazette will now allow inspection of design applications prior to its registration. Another welcome amendment brought to the design law, the law now defines the terms \u201cindependent creation\u201d and \u201csignificant degree\u201d providing clarity with respect to the definition of novelty in a design.<\/p>\n

      BananaIP\u2019s Patent \/ Design Tip of the Week<\/h2>\n

      Cross check documents upon publication of patent application<\/strong><\/p>\n

      An application is ordinarily published within 18 months from the date of filing of the application. While the details of the application become available to the public at this stage, documents submitted with the patent offices are also put up on record for public access and viewing. It is always advisable that the applicant verifies all the documents uploaded by the patent office and ensures that the publication is proper in terms of the details and documents recorded.<\/p>\n

      Author: BIP\u2019s Patent Attorneys<\/strong><\/p>\n

      Led by Senior Partners, Somashekar Ramakrishna, Nitin Nair and Vinita Radhakrishnan, BIP’s \u00a0Patent Attorneys are among the leading patent practitioners in the country. They work with clients such as Mahindra and Mahindra, Samsung, HCL, Eureka Forbes, and Titan. They specialize in IT\/Software, Electronics\/Telecom, Mechanical, Automotive, and Bio\/Pharma domains, and help clients with patent filing, prosecution, management and strategy in India, and across the world.<\/p>\n

      The weekly patent news initiative is a part of their pro bono work, and is aimed at spreading patent awareness. You are free to share the news with appropriate attribution and backlink to the source.<\/p>\n

      If you have any questions, you may write to BIP’s Patent Attorneys – contact@bananaip.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      This update highlights major patent news such as Ford’s round car patent, a smart wheelchair innovation, and BlackBerry’s action against Snapchat. It also covers the latest Indian patent statistics, USPTO guidance on patent subject matter eligibility, and international design law developments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,14],"tags":[8999,342,7673,9000,1837,2280,9001,108],"class_list":["post-43262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-intellectual-property","category-patents","tag-blackberry-litigation","tag-design-patents","tag-ford-patents","tag-frand-cases","tag-indian-patents","tag-patent-news","tag-smart-wheelchair","tag-uspto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43262"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43262\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":136861,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43262\/revisions\/136861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}