“Continued decrease in patent stats, Interesting Patents on eyewear, payments and lipsticks, Madras High Court upholds FIR against patent officials; BlackBerry sues Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram for patent infringement, USPTO to disclose new design for patent certificate, Huawei tops patent filing list in 2017 at EPO, Patent Tip of the Week 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
“It is never about how many patents you have; it’s about how many of those are worth it” – Gaurav Mishra, Patent Associate, BananaIP Counsels
Indian Patent Statistics
It appears that a trend of decreasing figures has crept in at the patent office. The total number of patent applications published between the 2nd of March 2018 and 9th March 2018 further tanked by 5.19% in comparison to the figures from the previous weeks. A total of 512 patent applications have been published, of which, 43 applications account for early publications while 469 applications account for ordinary publications or publications occurring after the 18 month period. A total of 495 applications have been granted between this period which marks a rather significant increase of about 75% in grants.
Early Publications
| City | Previous Week | This Week | Percentage of change |
| Delhi | 1 | 16 | 1500% increase |
| Mumbai | 2 | 1 | 50% decrease |
| Chennai | 16 | 26 | 62.5% increase |
| Kolkata | 0 | 0 | – |
| Total | 19 | 43 | 126.32% increase |
Ordinary Publications
| City | Previous Week | This Week | Percentage of change |
| Delhi | 349 | 91 | 73.93% decrease |
| Mumbai | 46 | 51 | 10.87% increase |
| Chennai | 110 | 283 | 157.27% increase |
| Kolkata | 16 | 44 | 175% increase |
| Total | 521 | 469 | 9.98% decrease |
TOTAL PUBLICATIONS (Previous Week): 540
TOTAL PUBLICATIONS (This Week): 512
Percentage difference: 5.19% decrease
PUBLICATIONS UNDER GRANT
| City | Previous Week | This Week | Percentage of change |
| Delhi | 109 | 187 | 71.56% increase |
| Mumbai | 33 | 68 | 106.06% increase |
| Chennai | 87 | 153 | 75.86% increase |
| Kolkata | 54 | 87 | 61.11% increase |
| Total | 283 | 495 | 74.91% increase |
Number of Applications published based on applicant city
Of the total 512 patent applications published in the journal last week, Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kolkata have contributed a total of 123 applications. The total applications from each of the previously mentioned cities for the past week are as follows –34 from Bangalore, 28 from Chennai, 22 from Hyderabad, 19 each from Delhi and Mumbai and 1 from Kolkata.
| List of Cities | 1st January 2018 – 9th March 2018 | 3rd March 2018 – 9th March 2018 |
| Delhi | 305 | 19 |
| Mumbai | 162 | 19 |
| Bangalore | 142 | 34 |
| Chennai | 107 | 28 |
| Hyderabad | 88 | 22 |
| Kolkata | 25 | 1 |
Total number of applications published by the Indian Patent Office from the 1st of January 2018 till date: 7054
- Early publications: 617
- Ordinary Publications: 6437
Total number of patents granted by the Indian Patent Office from the 1st of January 2018 till date: 2827
- Delhi – 1081
- Mumbai – 390
- Chennai – 893
- Kolkata – 524
First Examination Report (FER) Statistics
A total of 1681 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 | 551 |
| Mumbai | 261 |
| Chennai | 602 |
| Kolkata | 267 |
| Total | 1681 |
Indian Industrial Designs Statistics
The designs office has registered a total of 202 designs this week. The total designs registered from the 1st of January 2018 till date now adds to a total of 2097 applications.
Total designs registered in the previous Week: 206
Total designs registered this Week: 202
Percentage Difference: 1.94% decrease
Total designs registered from the 1st of January 2018 till date: 2097
Interesting Patents
Misplaced those eyeglasses and can’t find them? Want to skip the queue at the cash counter when making purchases? Or want that perfect shade of lipstick? Read on to know more about these interesting inventions extracted from the patent journal of the Indian Patent Office published on 9th March 2018.
Patent Application 1
Title of the Invention: EYEWEAR DETECTOR WITH CLAP ON TECHNOLOGY
Application No.: 201841007833
Applicant: P. PONMURUGAN et al.
Abstract: “This invention deals with the difficulties of people with short sighted eye sight in identifying the power glasses. Generally people with short sighted eye sight have difficulties in finding their power glasses in an ease, this invention will help these kinds of people to find their pair of eyewear without any discomfort. It is a lucid system which reacts upon a clapping sound of a person and glows a LED along with a buzzing sound, this glowing LED light and the sound will engage the person effortlessly so that he can find his pair of eyewear without any hardship. This ideology involves fewer components and also they are smaller which can be easily fitted into conventional eyewears that are used currently.” (The abstract has been taken from the patent specification as is and has not been corrected for errors.)
Patent Application 2
Title of the Invention: SELF SERVICE PAYMENT AND CHECK OUT SYSTEM
Application No.: 201841000306
Applicant: KARTHIK BALACHANDRAN et al.
Abstract: “Self Service Payment And Checkout System• is a mobile application which helps in saving the customer™s valuable time by avoiding queue and also saves labor costs in the cashiers check out, thus reducing the billing time. The invention comprises of a selfservice checkout terminal and merchant server commodity code acquisition module. The method includes obtaining the merchandise using commodity code of self-checkout terminal and after obtaining the merchandise by commodity code of self-checkout terminal, the information is sent to the merchant™s server. The user is determined based on the product information and after confirming payment, the self-checkout terminal sends a payment request to the payment platform to make the payment platform transfer operations to the merchants server. The technical aspect of the present invention is aimed at providing user self-checkout, saving the user time at checkout point and cashiers labor costs.” (The abstract has been taken from the patent specification as is and has not been corrected for errors.)
Patent Application 3
Title of the Invention: A METHOD AND KIT FOR CUSTOM BLENDING OF LIPSTICK
Application No.: 201611026653
Applicant: Samir Modi
Abstract: “The present invention provides a novel method and kit for custom blending of lipstick to a desired shade, fragrance and texture and fabricating the blended lipstick at a seller establishment to personal specification of a customer at the point of sale while customers wait, comprising the steps of: i. receiving a demand for a required shade custom blended lipstick with reference to a pre-measured shade chart (1) for user; ii. matching the required demanded shade with a pre-measured shade chart (2); iii. blending the pre-prepared wax for the required shade custom blended lipstick to get a mixture (3) according to the pre-measured shade chart (2) in ratio 1:4 to 4:1 to 1: 1 :1:1 to 2:1:1:1 to obtain mixture(3); iv. melting the mixture (3) of the selected pre-prepared waxes obtained in step (iii) to obtain a liquefied homogenous blend (4) of all ingredients; v. placing the liquefied homogenous blend (4) into a mould and cooling and optionally, placing the cooled lipstick in a lipstick case.” (The abstract has been taken from the patent specification as is and has not been corrected for errors.)
Indian Patent Office updates
Madras High Court refuses to quash FIR against senior patent officer
The Madras high court has refused to quash an FIR registered against a senior patent official who was booked recently for allegedly demanding a bribe to the tune of 10 lakh to issue a patent in favor of an applicant. Justice G Jayachandran while dismissing the petition moved by Dr S P Subramaniyan , deputy controller and branch head at the office of Patents and Designs in Anna Nagar said that since the probe was in a nascent stage, it would not be permissible under law to put a spoke in the course of the investigation.
Patent Infringements, Disputes and Settlements
BlackBerry sues Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram for patent infringement
BlackBerry has announced that it would be pulling up Facebook and its associate applications – WhatsApp and Instagram for infringing on the patented technology and features that form part of the old BlackBerry Messenger. BalckBerry has alleged that Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram have used a number of the innovative security, user interface, and functionality enhancing features that were originally brought about by BlackBerry years ago.
Facebook general counsel Paul Grewal retorted to the allegations saying “Blackberry’s suit sadly reflects the current state of its messaging business. Having abandoned its efforts to innovate, Blackberry is now looking to tax the innovation of others.”
Qualcomm and Huawei discuss patent dispute settlement
Qualcomm has said that it is in talks with Huawei Technologies to settle a patent dispute pending since April 2017. Qualcomm has been in a dispute with two major patent license customers: Apple and an unnamed licensee that stopped paying royalties in April 2017. Analysts now believe that licensee was none other than China’s Huawei.
International Patent Update
Huawei tops patent filings with EPO for Y 2017
The European Patent Office has announced that Huawei was the biggest filer of patents with the office in 2017, thus becoming the first Chinese company to reach the number one spot. Statistics indicate that Huawei had filed 64,091 patent applications in China and 48,758 outside of China as of the end of last year of which 2,398 patent applications were filed with the European Patent Office. The EPO also added that the office received nearly 166,000 European patent applications in 2017 which was an all-time high for the office.
USPTO to disclose new design for patent certificates
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) will disclose a brand new design for patents issued by the PTO this week at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive Festival in Austin, Texas. The new design will first be used on patent number 10 million, expected to issue this year. The USPTO was quoted as saying that fewer than 12 basic design changes to the US patents have been made since President George Washington granted the first patent in 1790.
BananaIP’s Patent / Design Tip of the Week
When should you allow a patent to lapse?
No patentee would ever want to allow a patent to lapse willfully. There is more to the patent than just the monopoly granted by it. However, maintenance of a patent is costly business. It is therefore an important business decision that a patentee must take as to when a patent must be allowed to let go. If the patent is not bringing you any value and if the technology is more or less obsolete, it would not hurt to let a patent lapse due to non-maintenance. This decision is inarguably a very crucial one and must be thought through diligently.
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].
