“Increased patent publication by patent office, Stakeholders comments on statement of working of patents published by IPO, Apple accused of patent infringement, BlackBerry to sue Snap Inc., Japan to join US WTO complaint against China, 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 Fact of the Week
When Apple was granted the “Slide-to-Unlock” patent, Motorola in a case against Microsoft argued that “a tap is a zero-length swipe.” – source
Indian Patent Statistics
After a considerably long time there is a visible increase in the number of patent applications published and granted by the Indian Patent Office. A total of 1045 patent applications have been published in the 14th issue of the patent journal. Of the 1045 applications, 110 applications account for early publications while 935 applications account for ordinary publications or publications occurring after the 18 month period. A total of 522 applications have been granted this week marking a significant increase in grants by about 81%.
Early Publications
| City | Previous Week | This Week | Percentage of change |
| Delhi | 4 | 48 | 1100% increase |
| Mumbai | 14 | 9 | 35.71% decrease |
| Chennai | 15 | 25 | 66.67% increase |
| Kolkata | 3 | 28 | 833.33% increase |
| Total | 36 | 110 | 205.56% increase |
Ordinary Publications
| City | Previous Week | This Week | Percentage of change |
| Delhi | 137 | 403 | 194.16% increase |
| Mumbai | 37 | 81 | 118.92% increase |
| Chennai | 194 | 425 | 119.07% increase |
| Kolkata | 107 | 26 | 75.7% decrease |
| Total | 475 | 935 | 96.84% increase |
TOTAL PUBLICATIONS (Previous Week): 511
TOTAL PUBLICATIONS (This Week): 1045
Percentage difference: 104.5% increase
First Examination Report (FER) Statistics
A staggering 1960 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 | 765 |
| Mumbai | 270 |
| Chennai | 647 |
| Kolkata | 278 |
| Total | 1960 |
PUBLICATIONS UNDER GRANT
| City | Previous Week | This Week | Percentage of change |
| Delhi | 112 | 221 | 97.32% increase |
| Mumbai | 28 | 54 | 92.86% increase |
| Chennai | 85 | 147 | 72.94% increase |
| Kolkata | 64 | 100 | 56.25% increase |
| Total | 289 | 522 | 80.62% increase |
Number of Applications published based on applicant city
Of the total 1045 patent applications published in the journal last week, Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kolkata have contributed a total of 154 applications. The total applications from each of the previously mentioned cities for the past week are as follows – 46 from Bangalore, 43 from Delhi, 22 from Chennai, 18 from Kolkata, 14 from Mumbai and 11 from Hyderabad.
| List of Cities | 1st January 2018 – 6th April 2018 | 31st March 2018 – 6th April 2018 |
| Delhi | 418 | 43 |
| Mumbai | 240 | 14 |
| Bangalore | 240 | 46 |
| Chennai | 161 | 22 |
| Hyderabad | 136 | 11 |
| Kolkata | 62 | 18 |
Total number of applications published by the Indian Patent Office from the 1st of January 2018 till date: 10106
- Early publications: 948
- Ordinary Publications: 9158
Total number of patents granted by the Indian Patent Office from the 1st of January 2018 till date: 4411
- Delhi – 1696
- Mumbai – 553
- Chennai – 1331
- Kolkata – 831
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 2936 applications.
Total designs registered in the previous Week: 232
Total designs registered this Week: 202
Percentage Difference: 12.93% decrease
Total designs registered from the 1st of January 2018 till date: 2936
Indian Patent Office updates
Stakeholders comments on statement of working of patents published by IPO
The patent office has published all the response it has received from the stakeholders in respect of the issue surrounding the statement of working of patents. Various stakeholders such as I-HIPP, the Centre for Internet and Society, ASSOCHAM, Bosch, Mylan Labs, among several others have submitted their responses to the patent office which are available for reading here. You may also access the gist of the responses published by the patent office by clicking here.
Patent Infringements, Disputes, Licensing and Settlements.
Apple accused of patent infringement
Omni MedSci, a health startup based out of Cupertino has filed a five-count patent lawsuit against Apple alleging that Apple Watch’s heart rate sensor is built on stolen technology. MediSci in its lawsuit has alleged that all Apple Watch models infringe on four of the company’s patents and that Apple was aware of the claim scope of all the Patents as of December 21, 2017.
BlackBerry to sue Snap Inc.
BlackBerry Ltd. has announced that it would be suing Snapchat owner Snap Inc. for infringing on several of BlackBerry’s patents. BlackBerry in its announcement has stated that Snap has infringed on intellectual property, including innovations on real-time activity location for maps, message notification techniques and methods for integrating advertising on mobile devices. This lawsuit against Snap comes after the company was earlier sued by Facebook Inc. and its subsidiaries – WhatsApp and Instagram just as recently as in March alleging that the company had infringed on several patents related to messaging applications.
International Patent Updates
Japan to join US WTO complaint against China
A leading Japanese daily has reported that Japan has notified the World Trade Organization of its intention to join as a third party the United States’ complaint against China over alleged theft of intellectual property. The USTR had earlier said that China was breaking WTO rules by denying foreign patent holders, including U.S. companies, basic patent rights to stop Chinese entities from using a patented technology after a licensing contract ends.
BananaIP’s Patent / Design Tip of the Week
Monitor issue examination reports diligently
The patent office has been issuing FER’s at an unprecedented rate. With as many as 2000 FER’s being issued on an average, it is advisable that applicants and agents monitor the issue of FER’s through the journal publication that occurs every Friday.
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].
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ADVOCATE TANVI BAROT
Can you provide this kind of statistical data for Copyrights Trademarks also……. I need it for my project study.