“Stakeholders Meeting to discuss Working of Patents, National IP Awards – 2018 – Last date extended, InterDigital and Technicolor sign patent licensing agreement, India ISA ranked 7th out of 22, Nasdaq sues IEX, WiLAN sues Google for infringing Siri related patent, Design 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
“He who says there is no value inn aesthetic appeal is yet to be introduced to the concept of designs” – Jagruti Kumar, Patent & Design Associate, BananaIP Counsels
Indian Patent Statistics
There has been a sharp drop in the total number of patent applications published between the 24th of February 2018 and 2nd of March 2018. A total of 540 patent applications have been published, of which, 19 applications account for early publications while 521 applications account for ordinary publications or publications occurring after the 18 month period. A total of 283 applications have been granted between this period which marks an increase of about 6% in grants.
Early Publications
| City | Previous Week | This Week | Percentage of change |
| Delhi | 33 | 1 | 96.97% decrease |
| Mumbai | 21 | 2 | 90.48% decrease |
| Chennai | 25 | 16 | 36% decrease |
| Kolkata | 1 | 0 | 100% decrease |
| Total | 80 | 19 | 76.25% decrease |
Ordinary Publications
| City | Previous Week | This Week | Percentage of change |
| Delhi | 207 | 349 | 68.6% increase |
| Mumbai | 55 | 46 | 16.36% decrease |
| Chennai | 161 | 110 | 31.68% decrease |
| Kolkata | 113 | 16 | 85.84% decrease |
| Total | 536 | 521 | 2.8% decrease |
TOTAL PUBLICATIONS (Previous Week): 616
TOTAL PUBLICATIONS (This Week): 540
Percentage difference: 12.34% decrease
PUBLICATIONS UNDER GRANT
| City | Previous Week | This Week | Percentage of change |
| Delhi | 86 | 109 | 26.74% increase |
| Mumbai | 50 | 33 | 34% decrease |
| Chennai | 82 | 87 | 6.1% increase |
| Kolkata | 49 | 54 | 10.2% increase |
| Total | 267 | 283 | 5.99% increase |
Number of Applications published based on applicant city
Of the total 540 patent applications published in the journal last week, Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kolkata have contributed a total of 62 applications. The total applications from each of the previously mentioned cities for the past week are as follows –21 applications from Delhi, 17 from Mumbai, 11 from Chennai, 8 from Bangalore, 3 from Hyderabad and 2 from Kolkata.
| List of Cities | 1st January 2018 – 2nd March 2018 | 24th February – 2nd March 2018 |
| Delhi | 305 | 21 |
| Mumbai | 162 | 17 |
| Bangalore | 142 | 8 |
| Chennai | 107 | 11 |
| Hyderabad | 88 | 3 |
| Kolkata | 25 | 2 |
Total number of applications published by the Indian Patent Office from the 1st of January 2018 till date: 6542
- Early publications: 574
- Ordinary Publications: 5968
Total number of patents granted by the Indian Patent Office from the 1st of January 2018 till date: 2332
- Delhi – 894
- Mumbai – 322
- Chennai – 740
- Kolkata – 437
First Examination Report (FER) Statistics
A total of 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 | 652 |
| Mumbai | 320 |
| Chennai | 680 |
| Kolkata | 308 |
| Total | 1960 |
Indian Industrial Designs Statistics
The designs office has registered a total of 206 designs this week. The total designs registered from the 1st of January 2018 till date now adds to a total of 1895 applications.
Total designs registered in the previous Week: 208
Total designs registered this Week: 206
Percentage Difference: 0.96% decrease
Total designs registered from the 1st of January 2018 till date: 1895
Indian Patent Office updates
National IP Awards – 2018 – Last date extended
The last date for filing nominations and applications for the 2018 National IP Awards has been extended to the 9th of March 2018. The application forms, guidelines and the official notification concerning this can be accessed from here.
Indian ISA ranked 7th out of 22
The Indian Patent Office has added yet another feather to its cap by becoming the 7th ISA to provide full Search Strategies along with the International Search Reports for publication on Patentscope. The Indian Patent Office (IPO) is the seventh among 22 ISAs under the PCT to start this service.
Stakeholders Meeting to discuss Working of Patents – Comments Invited
The Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs & Trademarks (CGPDTM) has issued a circular inviting all stakeholders to submit their comments on issues relating to working of patents, including comments of section 146 of the Patents Act, Rule 131 of the Patent Rules, Form 27, penal provisions u/s 122, etc. Comments must be submitted by 16/03/2018 to [email protected] and [email protected]. Select stakeholders will then be invited for a meeting scheduled to be held on the 21st of March 2018.
Patent Licensing, Acquisition and Commercialization
InterDigital and Technicolor sign patent licensing agreement
Technicolor has announced that it has agreed to sell its Patent Licensing business to InterDigital in a transaction valued at a total of USD 475 million. As part of the deal, Technicolor and InterDigital will also enter into a perpetual grant-back licensing agreement, which will give Technicolor freedom to operate its remaining businesses and benefit from existing and future patents.
Huawei enters into patent licensing agreement with Fraunhofer IIS
Communication equipment manufacturer Huawei has entered into a worldwide patent license agreement with the renowned developer of audio and media technologies, Fraunhofer IIS, for Fraunhofer’s MPEG-4 Audio patent portfolio.
Fraunhofer IIS is one of the main developers of the MPEG-4 Audio codecs which are used in communications services, TV, radio and streaming services worldwide.
Patent Infringements, Disputes and Settlements
Nasdaq sues IEX Group
Nasdaq Inc., the operator of the Armenian Stock Exchange or the NASDAQ stock market has sued IEX Group Inc., yet another stock exchange operator in America, alleging that the latter stole aspects of Nasdaq’s trading technology. In the lawsuit, Nasdaq has alleged that seven of its patents have been violated by IEX. Nasdaq has further said that these patents represent “millions of dollars in investment over decades”
WiLAN sues Google for infringing Siri related patent
WiLAN, the Canadian IP licensing company has filed a lawsuit against Google Inc. accusing it of infringing patents originally assigned to the inventors of Apple Inc’s voice assistant technology Siri. WiLAN has alleged that the tech giant’s Google Assistant feature infringes six patents relating to voice assistant technology WiLAN acquired from the nonprofit research center SRI International.
International Patent Update
Cambodia begins validation of EP patents
An agreement signed by Cambodia on the Validation of European Patents also known as the Validation Agreement with the European Patent Office (EPO) has come into force from the 1st of March 2018. Cambodia has now become the first Asian country to validate European patents in its territory, placing it among 44 countries worldwide that allow protection with a single European patent application.
China’s patents grow in quality and quantity
The State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) of China has revealed that China filed close to 1.382 million patent applications in 2017 of which nearly 420,000 have been granted. China has now become a global leader in patent filings as confirmed by the stats published by WIPO earlier last month.
BananaIP’s Patent / Design Tip of the Week
What kind of protection does an industrial design right offer?
In principle, the owner of a registered industrial design or of a design patent has the right to prevent third parties from making, selling or importing articles bearing or embodying a design which is a copy, or substantially a copy, of the protected design, when such acts are undertaken for commercial purposes.
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].
