“Interesting Inventions, IBM patents drones that deliver coffee, Making paper from Cow dung, Blackberry versus Facebook and SnapInc in patent infringement suit, Design term extension in Japan likely and other Weekly Patent News,” presented by the Patent attorneys and experts of BananaIP Counsels, India’s leading Patent Firm.
Patent Quote of the Week
“Ideas in your mind have no patent value. They must be expressed or reduced to practice before it is too late” – Dr. Kalyan C. Kankanala, Author, Professor and Renowned IP Attorney
Indian Patent Statistics
A total of 750 patent applications have been published in the 34th issue of the patent journal. Out of the 750 applications, 58 applications account for early publications while 692 applications account for ordinary publications or publications occurring after the 18 month period. A total of 176 applications have been granted this week which is exactly the grants from the previous week. There is therefore no change in the total grant percentage compared to the previous week.
Early Publications
| City | Previous Week | This Week | Percentage of change |
| Delhi | 25 | 6 | 76% decrease |
| Mumbai | 4 | 27 | 575% increase |
| Chennai | 33 | 22 | 33.33% decrease |
| Kolkata | 16 | 3 | 81.25% decrease |
| Total | 78 | 58 | 25.64% decrease |
Ordinary Publications
| City | Previous Week | This Week | Percentage of change |
| Delhi | 286 | 139 | 51.4% decrease |
| Mumbai | 17 | 44 | 158.82% increase |
| Chennai | 222 | 235 | 5.86% increase |
| Kolkata | 14 | 274 | 1857.14% increase |
| Total | 539 | 692 | 28.39% increase |
TOTAL PUBLICATIONS (Previous Week): 617
TOTAL PUBLICATIONS (This Week): 750
Percentage difference: 21.56% increase
First Examination Report (FER) Statistics
A total of 1054 FER’s 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.
| City | No. of FER Issued |
| Delhi | 361 |
| Mumbai | 158 |
| Chennai | 397 |
| Kolkata | 138 |
| Total | 1054 |
PUBLICATIONS UNDER GRANT
| City | Previous Week | This Week | Percentage of change |
| Delhi | 63 | 63 | No change |
| Mumbai | 22 | 22 | No change |
| Chennai | 47 | 47 | No change |
| Kolkata | 44 | 44 | No change |
| Total | 176 | 176 | No change |
Number of Applications published based on applicant city
Of the total 750 patent applications published in the journal last week, Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kolkata have contributed a total of 97 applications. The total applications from each of the previously mentioned cities are as follows – 36 applications from Bangalore, 21 applications from Delhi, 15 applications from Chennai, 10 applications from Mumbai, 9 applications from Hyderabad and 6 applications from Kolkata.
| List of Cities | 1st January 2018 – 24th August 2018 | 18th August 2018 – 24th August 2018 |
| Delhi | 747 | 21 |
| Mumbai | 571 | 10 |
| Bangalore | 721 | 36 |
| Chennai | 420 | 15 |
| Hyderabad | 324 | 9 |
| Kolkata | 155 | 6 |
Total number of applications published by the Indian Patent Office from the 1st of January 2018 till date: 25362
- Early publications: 2377
- Ordinary Publications: 22985
Total number of patents granted by the Indian Patent Office from the 1st of January 2018 till date: 9053
- Delhi – 3392
- Mumbai – 1090
- Chennai – 2775
- Kolkata – 1796
Indian Industrial Designs Statistics
The designs office has registered a total of 102 designs this week. The total designs registered from the 1st of January 2018 till date now adds to a total of 5674 applications.
Total designs registered in the previous Week: 78
Total designs registered this Week: 102
Percentage Difference: 30.77% increase
Total designs registered from the 1st of January 2018 till date: 5674
Interesting Inventions of the week
Where is my Coffee? IBM has the answer
IBM, the tech giant was recently granted a US patent for an invention titled “Drone delivery of coffee based on a cognitive state of an individual”. The invention can allegedly predict when you need a drink and will swoop down to save your day. The coffee carrying drones would use “biometrics, blood pressure, pupil dilation, facial expressions” detect when someone needs a flat white, mocha or any other variation. Using advances in artificial intelligence, the drone may “take advantage of social psychological effects by first providing coffee to a person who is popular, famous or otherwise has a high social status”. The abstract text of this extremely interesting patent is provided below:
“Coffee or other drink, for example a caffeine containing drink, is delivered to individuals that would like the drink, or who have a predetermined cognitive state, using an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)/drone. The drink is connected to the UAV, and the UAV flies to an area including people, and uses sensors to scan the people for an individual who has gestured that they would like the drink, or for whom an electronic analysis of sensor data indicates to be in a predetermined cognitive state. The UAV then flies to the individual to deliver the drink. The analysis can include profile data of people, including electronic calendar data, which can be used to determine a potentially predetermined cognitive state.” (The abstract text has been taken as is and has not been corrected for any errors)
A ‘Green’ invention indeed
Patent Application No.: IN 201811005499
Applicant: Bheem Raj Sharma
Title of the Invention: METHOD FOR MAKING PAPER USING COW DUNG
Abstract: “The present invention belongs to the technical field of papermaking, particularly for producing pulp by using cow dung, cow Urine, turmeric, waste cotton hosiery and Seeds of Indian organic plants, flower, fruits and vegetable. The cow dung pulp suitable for the production of paper, but also created a new use for the development and utilization of farming waste dung, cow dung to solve the environment pollution problem and waste to achieve a low-input, high-use, reducing the cost of pulp products.” (The abstract text has been taken as is and has not been corrected for any errors)
Patent /Design Infringements, Disputes, Licensing and Settlements
Blackberry versus Facebook and SnapInc.
In a case of suits and countersuits U.S District Judge George H. Wu dismissed one of seven patent infringement claims filed by Blackberry against Facebook and Snap Inc. Blackberry had sued the social media companies earlier in March alleging that the companies had infringed Blackberry’s patents covering the timestamp tool, message notification icons, push notifications for ads and mapping media activity by users for their services.
Facebook and Snap Inc. soon after countered the suit with a motion seeking to invalidate and dismiss the seven patent claims cited in Blackberry’s initial complaint, arguing that Blackberry’s patents cover vague concepts or ideas undeserving of protection.
International Patent Updates.
Design Protection for 25 years in Japan?
The Japanese Patent Office has proposed to extend the design patent protection in Japan from 20 years to 25 years with the aim of making Japanese companies more brand-conscious and for enhancing coverage of inventions that combine visual and technical features such as user interfaces. The proposal is likely to be made law only once the Japanese legislature convenes and discusses on the issue in its parliament.
Author: BIP’s Patent Attorneys
Led by Senior Partners, Somashekar Ramakrishna, Nitin Nair and Vinita Radhakrishnan, BIP’s Patent 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.
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.
If you have any questions, you may write to BIP’s Patent Attorneys – [email protected]
