“Indian patent statistics, Interesting Inventions, Patent Agent Examination 2018, President Kovind says patent applications by Indian start-ups rising in India, Groupon to pay IBM $57 million, USITC to investigate Resmed for alleged patent infringement, USITC to investigate Resmed for alleged patent infringement, EPO and CNIPA sign Bilateral Co-operation Plan, WIPO Assemblies Close amidst Treaty Accessions, Guidance on Future Work and other Weekly Patent News updates,” presented by the Patent attorneys and experts of BananaIP Counsels, India’s leading Patent Firm.
Patent quote of the Week
“If you didn’t have patents, no one would bother to spend money on research and development. But with patents, if someone has a good idea and a competitor can’t copy it, then that competitor will have to think of their own way of doing it. So then, instead of just one innovator, you have two or three people trying to do something in a new way.” – James Dyson, British inventor, industrial design engineer and founder of the Dyson company.
Indian Patent Statistics
A total of 964 patent applications have been published in the 40th issue of the patent journal. Out of the 964 applications, 118 applications account for early publications while 846 applications account for ordinary publications or publications occurring after the 18 month period. A total of 322 applications have been granted this week thereby marking a decrease of about 7.20% in total grants as compared to the preceding week.
Early Publications
| City | Previous Week | This Week | Percentage of change |
| Delhi | 39 | 18 | 53.84% decrease |
| Mumbai | 1 | 60 | 5900% increase |
| Chennai | 40 | 40 | – |
| Kolkata | 1 | 0 | 100% decrease |
| Total | 81 | 118 | 45.67% increase |
Ordinary Publications
| City | Previous Week | This Week | Percentage of change |
| Delhi | 242 | 321 | 32.64% increase |
| Mumbai | 183 | 153 | 16.39% decrease |
| Chennai | 432 | 344 | 20% decrease |
| Kolkata | 53 | 28 | 47.16% decrease |
| Total | 910 | 846 | 7.03% decrease |
TOTAL PUBLICATIONS (Previous Week): 991
TOTAL PUBLICATIONS (This Week): 964
Percentage difference: 2.72% decrease
First Examination Report (FER) Statistics
A total of 3283 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 | 1101 |
| Mumbai | 492 |
| Chennai | 1150 |
| Kolkata | 540 |
| Total | 3283 |
PUBLICATIONS UNDER GRANT
| City | Previous Week | This Week | Percentage of change |
| Delhi | 128 | 122 | 4.68% decrease |
| Mumbai | 49 | 52 | 6.12% increase |
| Chennai | 124 | 85 | 31.45% decrease |
| Kolkata | 46 | 63 | 36.95% increase |
| Total | 347 | 322 | 7.20% decrease |
Number of Applications published based on applicant city
Of the total 964 patent applications published in the journal last week, Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kolkata have contributed a total of 93 applications. The total applications from each of the previously mentioned cities are as follows – 20 applications from Bangalore, 16 applications from Mumbai, 19 applications from Delhi, 19 applications from Chennai, 14 applications from Hyderabad and 5 applications from Kolkata.
| List of Cities | 1st January 2018 – 5th October 2018 | 29th September 2018 – 5th October 2018 |
| Delhi | 889 | 31 |
| Mumbai | 764 | 53 |
| Bangalore | 938 | 59 |
| Chennai | 544 | 28 |
| Hyderabad | 395 | 15 |
| Kolkata | 223 | 19 |
Total number of applications published by the Indian Patent Office from the 1st of January 2018 till date: 30057
- Early publications: 2837
- Ordinary Publications: 27338
Total number of patents granted by the Indian Patent Office from the 1st of January 2018 till date: 10710
- Delhi – 3991
- Mumbai – 1317
- Chennai – 3325
- Kolkata – 2083
Indian Industrial Designs Statistics
The designs office has registered a total of 148 designs this week. The total designs registered from the 1st of January 2018 till date now adds to a total of 6651 applications.
Total designs registered in the previous Week: 148
Total designs registered this Week: 144
Percentage Difference: 2.70% decrease
Total designs registered from the 1st of January 2018 till date: 6651
Interesting Inventions of the Week
Invention 1 – ATTACHABLE AIR-COOLER FOR TWO WHEELER HELMETS
Patent Application No.: 201841036173
Applicant: ABRAHAM EBEN ANDREWS A
Abstract: “The Disclosed Invention Provides portable and attachable Air cooler for full face two wheeler helmets.An adjestable elastic stap is used to attach the cooler on any type of the helmet, This device is having automatic charger circuit it recharge the device when power is supplied and automatically disconnects when the battery is full due to its high capacity battery it can run up to 48Hrs in single charge. Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene is used as a skeleton of this device and Flexible Polyvinyl Chloride is used as a outer body material, hybrid Air filter is used to filter air which can filter and cool the air at same time, outer part of the filter is made up of synthetic foam and inner material is made up of charcoal and natural fibers, outlet nozzle is designed to transmit gentle flow of air inside Helmet, so the rider can wear helmet without any discomfort and stress free ride on foggy days the cool air from the device removes the fogs on the voicer, the aerodynamic outer design reduce the drag force and it prevent the shaking of riders head, within 30 seconds it drops 6 °c to 10 °c of temperature inside the helmet” (The abstract has been provided as is and has not been corrected for errors)
Invention 2 – AUTONOMOUS SEED SOWING BOT
Patent Application No.: 201811036992
Applicant: Dr. Yogesh Mohan Dubey
Abstract: “Autonomous seed sowing robot is one of the promising solutions for precision agriculture. This project presents the proposed sensor and vision based agricultural robot for sowing seeds and as well as removal of weeds. This prototype can navigate on black line such as line following robot or normally traverse in the farm and perform weed plucking and seed sowing operation at different planting zone. The sensors, camera along with image processing based approaches achieves the detection of weeds. The main objective of this project is efficient utilization of resources and to reduce labour work.” (The abstract has been provided as is and has not been corrected for errors)
Indian Patent Updates
President Kovind says patent applications by Indian start-ups rising in India
President Ram Nath Kovind in an address to the audience at the India International Science Festival (IISF 2018) being held in Lucknow stated that 2017 saw as much as a 15-fold increase in the number of patent applications filed by Startups in comparison to the numbers from 2016 and that in 2018, India’s R and D investments will amount to an appreciable US$ 83.27 billion.
Patent /Design Infringements, Disputes, Licensing and Settlements
Groupon to pay IBM $57 million
Groupon Inc has announced that it would pay $57 million to International Business Machines (IBM) to settle a patent infringement dispute involving the two parties. IBM had filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Groupon in 2016 at the US Delaware Court accusing the company of using IBM’s patented e-commerce technology without authorization. A jury ruled in favor of IBM this July and asked Groupon to pay $83 million in damages.
USITC to investigate Resmed for alleged patent infringement
The U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) said last week that it would investigate California-based Resmed Inc for a patent infringement complaint related to sleep apnea mask systems. The investigation is based on a complaint by New Zealand medical device maker Fisher & Paykel Healthcare which has been at loggerheads with Resmed over certain patents which the companies have accused each other of infringing.
International Patent Updates
EPO and CNIPA sign Bilateral Co-operation Plan
The European Patent Office (EPO) and the China Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) have agreed on a co-operation program as a part of their long-term strategic partnership on strengthening the patent system in their respective countries. The co-operation plan was signed by EPO President Antonio Campinos and CNIPA Commissioner Shen Changyu at their annual heads of office meeting in Munich.
The main focus areas of the co-operation plan will include areas of patent law and patent examination guidelines, examination quality, data exchange, classification, search tools and machine translation along with a joint study on Computer-implemented inventions.
WIPO Assemblies Close amidst Treaty Accessions, Guidance on Future Work
The WIPO Assemblies meetings concluded last week on the 2nd of October 2018. During the September 24-October 2, 2018 meetings, member states agreed to push forward with negotiations on proposed treaties on broadcasting as well as IP and genetic resources, traditional knowledge and folklore, and a Design Law Treaty.
Authors: Vibha Amarnath, Shravani Damodara and Soumya Deshawar
About 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];
