“Nike’s interesting patent, Apple awarded 539 million dollars in suit against Samsung, Tinder’s parent company sued for patent infringement, New patent translation tool from WIPO; Korea becomes first adopter, Usage of Patent Pending or Patented, 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 doesn’t really matter how strategic you think you are, if you can’t access a pragmatic and clear construction of patent claims, you’re in trouble. – Duncan Bucknell
Indian Patent Statistics
A total of 587 patent applications have been published in the 21st issue of the patent journal. Out of the 587 applications, 110 applications account for early publications while 477 applications account for ordinary publications or publications occurring after the 18 month period. A total of 155 applications have been granted this week thus marking a drop of around 37.25% in comparison to the number of applications granted in the previous week.
Early Publications
| City | Previous Week | This Week | Percentage of change |
| Delhi | 5 | 10 | 100% increase |
| Mumbai | 5 | 52 | 940% increase |
| Chennai | 19 | 46 | 360% increase |
| Kolkata | 1 | 2 | 100% increase |
| Total | 30 | 110 | 266.67% increase |
Ordinary Publications
| City | Previous Week | This Week | Percentage of change |
| Delhi | 167 | 177 | 5.99% increase |
| Mumbai | 105 | 43 | 59.05% decrease |
| Chennai | 183 | 246 | 34.43% increase |
| Kolkata | 176 | 11 | 93.75% decrease |
| Total | 631 | 477 | 24.41% decrease |
TOTAL PUBLICATIONS (Previous Week): 661
TOTAL PUBLICATIONS (This Week): 587
Percentage difference: 11.2% decrease
First Examination Report (FER) Statistics
A total of 1463 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 | 575 |
| Mumbai | 196 |
| Chennai | 455 |
| Kolkata | 237 |
| Total | 1463 |
PUBLICATIONS UNDER GRANT
| City | Previous Week | This Week | Percentage of change |
| Delhi | 67 | 74 | 10.45% increase |
| Mumbai | 19 | 16 | 15.79% decrease |
| Chennai | 121 | 44 | 63.64% decrease |
| Kolkata | 40 | 21 | 47.5% decrease |
| Total | 247 | 155 | 37.25% decrease |
Number of Applications published based on applicant city
Of the total 587 patent applications published in the journal last week, Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kolkata have contributed a total of 83 applications. The total applications from each of the previously mentioned cities for the past week are as follows – 23 from Bangalore, 18 from Hyderabad, 17 from Mumbai, 13 from Chennai, 11 from Delhi and 1 from Kolkata.
| List of Cities | 1st January 2018 – 25th May 2018 | 19th May 2018 – 25th May 2018 |
| Delhi | 520 | 11 |
| Mumbai | 354 | 17 |
| Bangalore | 381 | 23 |
| Chennai | 270 | 13 |
| Hyderabad | 215 | 18 |
| Kolkata | 88 | 1 |
Total number of applications published by the Indian Patent Office from the 1st of January 2018 till date: 15571
- Early publications: 1439
- Ordinary Publications: 14132
Total number of patents granted by the Indian Patent Office from the 1st of January 2018 till date: 5900
- Delhi – 2261
- Mumbai – 692
- Chennai – 1805
- Kolkata – 1142
Indian Industrial Designs Statistics
The designs office has registered a total of 139 designs this week. The total designs registered from the 1st of January 2018 till date now adds to a total of 4156 applications.
Total designs registered in the previous Week: 123
Total designs registered this Week: 139
Percentage Difference: 13.01% decrease
Total designs registered from the 1st of January 2018 till date: 4156
Interesting Patents
Towels or Garments? Why not both?
Nike has obtained a US patent for an extremely interesting invention titled “GARMENT WITH WIPE ZONES”. The invention describes something called as “wipe zones” as an addition to traditional athletic garments. Made from a different type of material than typically found in exercise apparel, these zones would allow the wearer to quickly and efficiently wipe away perspiration, keeping their hands and brow drier in the process, without interfering with the performance of the workout clothes in any way. The abstract text of this interesting patent reads as follows: “A garment having one or more wipe zones for transferring away perspiration from a wearer’s skin upon contact with the wearer’s skin is provided herein. The wipe zones may be comprised of hydrophobic material formed from yarns having a smaller denier per filament (DPF) than adjacent non-wipe zones on the garment. In some aspects, the DPF of the wipe-zone material is within a range of 0.025 to 0.0025. The wipe zones may be positioned on an outer-facing surface of the garment or an inner-facing surface of the garment in areas that are readily accessible to remove perspiration from the wearer’s hands and/or head. Methods of manufacturing a garment having wipe zones are also provided herein.” (The abstract text has been taken as is and has not been corrected for errors)
Patent /Design Infringements, Disputes, Licensing and Settlements.
Apple awarded 539 million dollars in suit against Samsung
In the retrial of the Apple versus Samsung case, where Apple had sought 1 billion dollars from Samsung for infringing upon three of the company’s design patents, the Court has ruled in favor of Apple and asked Samsung to pay Apple $539 million in damages.
Tinder’s parent company sued for patent infringement.
Not too long ago, Tinder’s parent company Match Group Inc. was involved in a patent infringement battle with Bumble Inc, where it alleged Bumble of infringing Match’s patents. This time however, Match has been hit with a suit alleging patent infringement by newly created Texas entity called NetSoc LLC. The company has accused Match of infringing NetSoc’s patent titled “a social network to facilitate people in life issues.” It could just be another case of a patent troll but it remains to be seen on how this will end for Match.
International Patent / Design Updates
New patent translation tool from WIPO; Korea becomes first to adopt
The Republic of Korea has become the first adopter of a new artificial intelligence-based translation tool for patent documents created by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). The tool WIPO Translate uses cutting-edge neural machine translation technology to render highly technical patent documents into a second language in a style and syntax that more closely mirrors common usage.
BananaIP’s Patent / Design Tip of the Week
Usage of Patent Pending or Patented
Under the Indian Patents Act, a patent applicant can use the words ‘Patent pending’ or ‘Patent applied for’ if a patent application for the product or service is pending and has not been rejected, withdrawn or abandoned. Similarly, a patentee can use the word ‘Patented’ or the abbreviation ‘Pat’, together with the patent number or using a label with the mark, when a patent has been obtained.
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].
