“Minister clarifies on pending Indian patents, Patent Agent Examination registrations to remain open till 16th August 2018, India’s GII ranking increases, National Seminar on Intellectual Property Rights, Qualcomm settles patent dispute with Taiwanese government, Patent Licensing Agreement and Settlement other Weekly Patent News,” presented by the Patent attorneys and experts of BananaIP Counsels, India’s leading Patent Firm.
Patent Quote of the Week
“Patents are the best and most effective means of controlling competition.” – Edwin J. Prindle, Former Chairman of the Patent Committee of the American Chemical Society.
Indian Patent Statistics
A total of 1086 patent applications have been published in the 32nd issue of the patent journal. Out of the 1086 applications, 91 applications account for early publications while 995 applications account for ordinary publications or publications occurring after the 18 month period. A total of 193 applications have been granted this week thereby marking a sharp decrease of about 47.41% decrease in grants compared to the previous week.
Early Publications
| City | Previous Week | This Week | Percentage of change |
| Delhi | 28 | 14 | 50% decrease |
| Mumbai | 38 | 42 | 10.53% increase |
| Chennai | 27 | 20 | 25.93% decrease |
| Kolkata | 5 | 15 | 200% increase |
| Total | 98 | 91 | 7.14% decrease |
Ordinary Publications
| City | Previous Week | This Week | Percentage of change |
| Delhi | 90 | 507 | 463.33% increase |
| Mumbai | 96 | 246 | 156.25% increase |
| Chennai | 236 | 223 | 5.51% decrease |
| Kolkata | 44 | 19 | 56.82% decrease |
| Total | 466 | 995 | 113.52% increase |
TOTAL PUBLICATIONS (Previous Week): 564
TOTAL PUBLICATIONS (This Week): 1086
Percentage difference: 92.55% increase
First Examination Report (FER) Statistics
A total of 1805 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 | 687 |
| Mumbai | 264 |
| Chennai | 546 |
| Kolkata | 308 |
| Total | 1805 |
PUBLICATIONS UNDER GRANT
| City | Previous Week | This Week | Percentage of change |
| Delhi | 150 | 58 | 61.33% decrease |
| Mumbai | 48 | 36 | 25% decrease |
| Chennai | 106 | 63 | 40.57% decrease |
| Kolkata | 63 | 36 | 42.86% decrease |
| Total | 367 | 193 | 47.41% decrease |
Number of Applications published based on applicant city
Of the total 1086 patent applications published in the journal last week, Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kolkata have contributed a total of 116 applications. The total applications from each of the previously mentioned cities are as follows – 40 applications from Mumbai, 24 applications from Bangalore, 19 applications from Chennai, 14 applications from Hyderabad, 11 applications from Delhi and 8 applications from Kolkata.
| List of Cities | 1st January 2018 – 10th August 2018 | 4th August 2018 – 10th August 2018 |
| Delhi | 709 | 11 |
| Mumbai | 556 | 40 |
| Bangalore | 653 | 24 |
| Chennai | 394 | 19 |
| Hyderabad | 302 | 14 |
| Kolkata | 144 | 8 |
Total number of applications published by the Indian Patent Office from the 1st of January 2018 till date: 23995
- Early publications: 2241
- Ordinary Publications: 21754
Total number of patents granted by the Indian Patent Office from the 1st of January 2018 till date: 8701
- Delhi – 3266
- Mumbai – 1046
- Chennai – 2681
- Kolkata – 1708
Indian Industrial Designs Statistics
The designs office has registered a total of 127 designs this week. The total designs registered from the 1st of January 2018 till date now adds to a total of 5494 applications.
Total designs registered in the previous Week: 116
Total designs registered this Week: 127
Percentage Difference: 9.48% increase
Total designs registered from the 1st of January 2018 till date: 5494
Indian Patent Updates
Patent Agent Examination registrations to remain open till 16th August 2018
Registrations for the 2018 Patent Agent Examination are due to close shortly. Interested applicants should hurry up and register themselves on the official website of the Indian Patent Office if they have not already done so. The registration page may be accessed by clicking here. The tentative date of the examinations is October 28, 2018 and the registration closes on 16th August 2018. We will keep you posted on any new developments that occur in this regard.
Suresh Prabhu clarifies on issue of pending patents
Minister of Commerce and Industry, Mr. Suresh Prabhu clarified last week in the lower house of the Parliament during the question hour that pendency of patent applications at examination stage has reduced from 2,04,177 as on March 2017 to 1,55,438 as on June 2018. The Hon’ble Minister was also questioned about the action plan that the Ministry intends to undertake in order to develop the infrastructure across all patent offices in the country and other steps that the Government intends to take so as to deal with the increasing number of patent applications.
India’s rank on Global Innovation Index (GII) increases again
India’s rank on the Global Innovation Index (GII) increased yet again this year by 3 places. India has been consistently climbing upward on the GII ladder in the past two years. While its position improved from 80 in 2015 to 66 in 2016, India has been placed 57th this year. Switzerland, Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Singapore, the United States of America, Finland and Denmark lead the 2018 rankings in GII.
Patent / IP Conferences, Seminars
National Seminar on Intellectual Property Rights
Chanakya National Law University is organizing a one day National Seminar on “Intellectual Property Rights: Emerging Issues and Challenges” on the 23rd of September 2018. The University has called for submission of papers from Academicians, researchers, advocates, social activists and students pursuing law or any other academic degree. More details regarding the seminar may be retrieved from here.
Source: LiveLaw.in
Patent /Design Infringements, Disputes, Licensing and Settlements.
Cisco and Arista Networks settle patent dispute
Cisco Systems and Arista Networks have decided to settle a long standing patent dispute between the two companies over Arista’s alleged infringement of Cisco patents. As part of the settlement, Arista will pay Cisco $400 million and further tweak its user interfaces to differentiate them from Cisco’s.
Cisco had sued Arista, which was founded by former Cisco employees, in 2014 for allegedly copying Cisco software for its Ethernet switches.
Qualcomm settles patent dispute with Taiwanese government
Qualcomm Inc. appears to have scored a victory in the ongoing tussle between the company and the Taiwanese government in respect of Qualcomm’s patent-licensing business. The settlement with the Taiwanese government will save the company from having to pay nearly $700 million in fines. Qualcomm’s issues in Taiwan spiked in October last year when Taiwan’s Fair Trade Commission fined the company $773 million and ruled that Qualcomm violated the country’s laws by unfairly licensing its patents.
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].
