“Interesting patents – Voting just got interesting, Wear healthy, stay healthy!, Supreme Court issues notice to Nuziveedu Seeds, Coolpad Sues Xiaomi, Brazil & EU reject Gilead’s patent on hepatitis C & HIV drugs, Peripheral claiming versus Central claiming, 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
“Ingenuity should receive a liberal encouragement. Patentable subject matter should include anything under the sun that is made by man.” – Thomas Jefferson.
Indian Patent Statistics
A total of 852 patent applications have been published in the 19th issue of the patent journal. Out of the 852 applications, 111 applications account for early publications while 741 applications account for ordinary publications or publications occurring after the 18 month period. A total of 215 applications have been granted this week which is 14% less than the applications granted in the previous week.
Early Publications
| City | Previous Week | This Week | Percentage of change |
| Delhi | 25 | 12 | 52% decrease |
| Mumbai | 0 | 51 | – |
| Chennai | 37 | 26 | 29.73% decrease |
| Kolkata | 1 | 22 | 2100% increase |
| Total | 63 | 111 | 76.19% increase |
Ordinary Publications
| City | Previous Week | This Week | Percentage of change |
| Delhi | 154 | 261 | 69.48% increase |
| Mumbai | 133 | 206 | 54.89% increase |
| Chennai | 244 | 229 | 6.15% decrease |
| Kolkata | 22 | 45 | 104.55% increase |
| Total | 553 | 741 | 34% increase |
TOTAL PUBLICATIONS (Previous Week): 616
TOTAL PUBLICATIONS (This Week): 852
Percentage difference: 38.31% increase
First Examination Report (FER) Statistics
A total of 832 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 | 262 |
| Mumbai | 105 |
| Chennai | 330 |
| Kolkata | 135 |
| Total | 832 |
PUBLICATIONS UNDER GRANT
| City | Previous Week | This Week | Percentage of change |
| Delhi | 117 | 88 | 24.79% decrease |
| Mumbai | 30 | 15 | 50% decrease |
| Chennai | 30 | 60 | 100% decrease |
| Kolkata | 73 | 52 | 28.77% decrease |
| Total | 250 | 215 | 14% decrease |
Number of Applications published based on applicant city
Of the total 852 patent applications published in the journal last week, Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kolkata have contributed a total of 69 applications. The total applications from each of the previously mentioned cities for the past week are as follows – 18 applications from Bangalore, 16 applications from Chennai, 11 applications from each of the cities of Mumbai and Hyderabad, 7 applications from Kolkata and 6 from Delhi.
| List of Cities | 1st January 2018 – 11th May 2018 | 5th May 2018 – 11th May 2018 |
| Delhi | 494 | 6 |
| Mumbai | 322 | 11 |
| Bangalore | 345 | 18 |
| Chennai | 242 | 16 |
| Hyderabad | 192 | 11 |
| Kolkata | 84 | 7 |
Total number of applications published by the Indian Patent Office from the 1st of January 2018 till date: 14323
- Early publications: 1299
- Ordinary Publications: 13024
Total number of patents granted by the Indian Patent Office from the 1st of January 2018 till date: 5498
- Delhi – 2120
- Mumbai – 657
- Chennai – 1640
- Kolkata – 1081
Indian Industrial Designs Statistics
The designs office has registered a total of 168 designs this week. The total designs registered from the 1st of January 2018 till date now adds to a total of 3894 applications.
Total designs registered in the previous Week: 182
Total designs registered this Week: 168
Percentage Difference: 7.69% decrease
Total designs registered from the 1st of January 2018 till date: 3894
Interesting Patents
Voting just got interesting
With the Country slated to vote next year for the centre elections, the electronic voting machine described in the Indian application number 201821014646 (published in the 19th issue of the Indian patent journal) could bring the election commission, the much needed respite from allegations of a plethora of faults in the present EVMs. Invented by Anand Pramod Mishrikotkar, an inventor from Maharashtra, the abstract of the invention titled “ELECTRONIC VOTING MACHINE USING FINGERPRINT SCANNER” reads as follows:
“Present invention provides an Electronic Voting Machine using fingerprint scanner Using fingerprint scanner or QR code scanner in EVM one person votes only at once as machine lock that fingerprint or aadhar number for next 24 hours or as per our requirement for voting. During election by scanning the aadhar card by QR code scanner or using fingerprint scanner machine lock that number. Following invention is described in detail with the help of Figure 1 of sheet 1 showing the circuit diagram.” (The abstract text has been taken as is and has not been corrected for errors)
Wear healthy, stay healthy!
In yet another interesting patent application published in the official journal of patents this week, is an invention is titled “MANUFACTURING OF CLOTHES INFUSED WITH MEDICINAL PROPERTIES WHICH ADDS NOURISHMENT AND HEALTH TO SKIN”. The abstract of the application number 201821002442reads as follows:
The benefits of wearing clean underwear are very well-known. The present invention pertains to a unique and original concept of clothes like i.e: men and women under wear, gym vest, bra, panties, kids wear, hosiery products, etc which are infused with medicinal properties which are released on the skin. As these garments are worn on the intimate parts of our body, any infection to those areas can be more painful than other parts of body. Also any small infection can lead to disasters like vaginal cancer. So, the present invention not only provides a cure and remedy for the skin diseases and infections but also provides for a method of skin nourishment and health. (The abstract text has been taken as is and has not been corrected for errors)
Patent /Design Infringements, Disputes, Licensing and Settlements.
Supreme Court issues notice to Nuziveedu Seeds
The Supreme Court has issued a notice to Nuziveedu Seeds asking the company to respond to Monsanto’s plea challenging the Delhi High Court Verdict in the BT cotton case. In issuing the notice to Nuziveedu, the bench headed by Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman said that the matter would be slated for a preliminary hearing on July 18.
Coolpad Sues Xiaomi
Reports indicate that Xiaomi’s arch rival Coolpad has initiated a patent infringement case against Xiaomi with the Jiangsu Province Nanjing Intermediate People’s Court accusing the Smartphone manufacturer of infringing Coolpad’s patents through the sale of Mi Mix 2, Redmi Note 5 and Redmi 5 Plus. In its response to Coolpad’s allegations, Xiaomi is said to have requested the Patent Re-examination Board, under China’s State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO), to invalidate three patent rights that Coolpad had claimed were infringed by Xiaomi.
International Patent / Design Updates
Brazil & EU reject Gilead’s patent on hepatitis C & HIV drugs
The European Court of Justice recently invalidated Gilead’s efforts to seek an extension of it patents protection for the HIV drug Truvada, adding to the mounting global movement to reject unmerited patents that are blocking millions from getting the treatment they need. Just a few days after the decision of the ECJ and in response to a challenge by the Brazilian coalition Grupo de Tralbalho sobre Propriedade Intelectual (GTPI/ABIA), with I-MAK’s legal support, Brazil’s National Institute of Industrial Property has also rejected one of Gilead’s many patents for sofosbuvir.
BananaIP’s Patent / Design Tip of the Week
Peripheral claiming versus Central claiming
Most countries follow a ‘Peripheral claiming’ doctrine in which the claims set the outer boundaries for the scope of patent protection. Unless you happen to file the claims in a jurisdiction that follows a ‘Central claiming’ doctrine where the claims identify the ‘centre’ of the patented invention, it is critically important to use the claims to set the limits of the scope of protection.
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].
