Working of Patents – Delhi High Court decision, Mind Control Patents, Defense Patents, Patent Facilitation Centre in Raipur, Gillette v. Wilkinson, Huawei versus Samsung, Brazil PTO’s decision on patent grants, Submission of Statement of Working of Patents, Form 27, 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 is the pith and marrow of the invention claimed that has to be looked into and not get bogged down or involved in the detailed specifications and claims made by the parties who claim to be patentee or alleged violators.” – Delhi High Court in Raj Parkash Vs. Mangat Ram Chowdhry
Indian Patent Statistics
A total of 792 patent applications have been published between the 1st of January 2018 and 12th January 2018. Out of the 792 patent applications, 35 applications account for early publications while 757 applications are ordinary publications or publications occurring after the 18 month period. A total of 200 applications have been granted between this period, thereby marking a decrease of about 17.01% in grants.
Early Publications
| City | Previous Week | This Week | Percentage of change |
| Delhi | 22 | 5 | 77.27% decrease |
| Mumbai | 29 | 11 | 62.07% decrease |
| Chennai | 44 | 12 | 72.73% decrease |
| Kolkata | 22 | 7 | 68.18% decrease |
| Total | 117 | 35 | 70.09% decrease |
Ordinary Publications
| City | Previous Week | This Week | Percentage of change |
| Delhi | 486 | 424 | 12.76% decrease |
| Mumbai | 54 | 79 | 46.3% increase |
| Chennai | 229 | 236 | 3.96% increase |
| Kolkata | 12 | 18 | 50% increase |
| Total | 781 | 757 | 3.07% decrease |
TOTAL PUBLICATIONS (Previous Week): 898
TOTAL PUBLICATIONS (This Week): 792
Percentage difference: 11.8% decrease
PUBLICATIONS UNDER GRANT
| City | Previous Week | This Week | Percentage of change |
| Delhi | 102 | 83 | 18.63% decrease |
| Mumbai | 29 | 13 | 55.17% decrease |
| Chennai | 66 | 80 | 21.21% increase |
| Kolkata | 44 | 24 | 45.45% decrease |
| Total | 241 | 200 | 17.01% decrease |
Number of Applications published based on applicant city
Of the total 792 patent applications published in the journal last week, Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kolkata have contributed a total of 78 applications. The total applications from each of the previously mentioned cities for the past week are as follows – 22 from Delhi, 18 from Mumbai, 17 from Chennai, 9 from Bangalore, 7 from Hyderabad and 5 from Kolkata.
| List of Cities | 1st January 2018 – 12th January 2018 | 6th January – 12th January 2018 |
| Delhi | 52 | 22 |
| Mumbai | 47 | 18 |
| Bangalore | 21 | 9 |
| Chennai | 19 | 17 |
| Hyderabad | 19 | 7 |
| Kolkata | 7 | 5 |
Total number of applications published by the Indian Patent Office from the 1st of January 2018 till date: 1690
- Early publications: 152
- Ordinary Publications: 1538
Total number of patents granted by the Indian Patent Office from the 1st of January 2018 till date: 441
- Delhi – 185
- Mumbai – 42
- Chennai – 146
- Kolkata – 68
First Examination Report (FER) Statistics
A total of 649 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 | 195 |
| Mumbai | 99 |
| Chennai | 242 |
| Kolkata | 113 |
| Total | 649 |
Indian Industrial Designs Statistics
The designs office has registered a total of 220 designs this week. This marks an increase of about 0.46% from the total number of designs registered in the previous week. The total designs registered from the 1st of January 2018 till date is 439 applications.
Total designs registered in the previous Week: 219
Total designs registered this Week: 220
Percentage Difference: 0.46% increase
Total designs registered from the 1st of January 2018 till date: 439
Patents, Startups and Innovations
Anti-landmine vehicle to the rescue
An Aerospace Engineering researcher, Professor Santanu Bhowmick from West Bengal made it to the headlines after a patent was granted to him recently for developing a unique raw material used in the manufacture of light weight anti landmine-vehicles. The Ministry of Defence has noted that the anti-landmine vehicles used by the defense organizations in India usually weigh 10-15 tonnes, whereas vehicles manufactured using the raw material developed by Professor Bhowmick will weigh only 5 tonnes, resulting in faster speed and greater mobility, especially in hilly terrains. The new material is also said to be capable of withstanding heat upto 2400 degrees Celsius. Usually, heat generated during a landmine blast measures upto 2000 degrees Celsius.
Interesting Patents & Designs
Mind Control Patent by Microsoft?
A very interesting patent was granted to Microsoft recently. The patent, titled “Changing an application state using neurological data,” describes a device that measures human brain waves via EEG or other technology, and uses that activity to launch and control an application – with many potential implications for productivity in the enterprise. The technology described in this new patent would work when the user trains the device via machine learning techniques to correlate their brain signal information to the corresponding app operations. This would involve the system learning which patterns relate to a user’s intention to perform gestures such as finger swipes, head or limb movements, facial movements, or keyboard strokes and mouse clicks. The abstract text of the US patent 9864431 reads as follows “Computer systems, methods, and storage media for changing the state of an application by detecting neurological user intent data associated with a particular operation of a particular application state, and changing the application state so as to enable execution of the particular operation as intended by the user. The application state is automatically changed to align with the intended operation, as determined by received neurological user intent data, so that the intended operation is performed. Some embodiments relate to a computer system creating or updating a state machine, through a training process, to change the state of an application according to detected neurological data.”
Government Updates
Patent Facilitation Centre established at Raipur
A Patent Facilitation Centre has been established at Science Centre near Vidhan Sabha Road in Raipur under the aegis of Chhattisgarh Council of Science & Technology. Government official have said that the facility has been established to help the researchers of educational and industrial institutions of the State to apply for Patents for their novel and innovative research outcomes.
Delhi High Court’s decision on Working of Patents, reignites debates
The debate of working of patents has once again been reignited after the Delhi High Court recently observed that “Patent Working Information is not “Confidential” and has to be mandatorily submitted by all patentees”. On Wednesday, the Court agreed with the contentions put forth by the Petitioner, Prof. Shamnad Basheer and observed the following:
“It is pointed out that so far as the grant of patents are concerned, information in regard thereto is available on the website of the Patents Office. All that the patentees submitting Form-27 are required to submit, is the details of the licenses and sublicenses. This information certainly cannot be termed “confidential” and therefore, the Patents Office has to treat such suppression as failure to comply with the requirements of Section 146 of the Patents Act, 1970 arid to take action against the patentees who do not furnish the required information.”
Listing the matter for 18th January, the Court has asked Mr. Amit Mahajan, who is appearing on behalf of the Central Government and the Controller General to inform the Court about the action being taken or to be taken against erring patentees to also inform the Court of the steps being taken to rectify Form-27.
Patent Disputes, Infringements and Settlements
Gillette cuts Wilkinson’s blades
A German court in Duesseldorf last week has asked Wilkinson Sword to stop selling blades that fit on rival Gillette’s Mach 3 model. Gillette and Wilkinson have been at war with each other since the start of 2016. A lower court ruling last year had agreed with Gillette that Wilkinson was guilty of infringing the patent rights of Gillette. The Court in Duesseldorf upheld the decision of the lower Court last week and has now directed Wilkinson to stop infringing on Gillette’s patent rights.
Huawei versus Samsung; Samsung suffers setback in China
Chinese tech giant Huawei has dealt a major blow to South Korea Smartphone rival, Samsung after a Chinese Court ordered Samsung Electronics to immediately stop selling or manufacturing products using the technology patented by Huawei and to pay a small court fee. While it is known that the suit involved two patents involving fourth generation phone technology, the ruling does not cite specific phone models. Samsung has remarked that it would ‘thoroughly review the court’s decision and determine appropriate responses.’
International Patent Updates
Brazilian PTO considering automatic grant of 231,000 Patents
The Brazilian Patents and Trademark Office has been plagued with a huge backlog of nearly 2 million patents for over 15 years now. To eliminate this obnoxious backlog problem, the Brazilian Government is considering the adoption of an emergency measure by which the PTO would automatically grant all pending applications without examination till 2020. The emergency measure has been labeled as an “extraordinary solution” and a draft of the plan was introduced for public discussion recently. IP Watchdog in its article on the subject has aptly noted that companies may soon need to deploy a strategy within a time-frame as short as 90 days to take full advantage of the new system while minimizing potential risks.
BananaIP’s Patent / Design Tip of the Week
Submission of Statement of Working of Patents
Section 146 read with Rule 131, require a patent holder including the patentee or a licensee, exclusive or otherwise, to submit a statement regarding the working of the patented invention on a commercial scale in India by filing a Form 27. Previous judgments by the Courts have emphasized on the fact that a patent is granted not as a mere right over the invention but to ensure that the said invention is being commercially worked in India. The Delhi High Court in its most recent decision has stated that patent working information is not “confidential” and has to be mandatorily submitted by all patentees. Hence, it is advisable that patentees or licensees submit the information / statement required in Form 27 within March 31st of the following year.
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].
