“Robo Police Cars, Patents for Massaging Cows, Coolpad v. Xiaomi, Michelin’s design patent suit, EU fines Qualcomm, Qualcomm’s 2 billion dollar deal, Responding to First Examination Reports, 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
“Patenting tends to get people’s juices flowing” – Francis Collins, Director of the National Human Genome Research Institute
Indian Patent Statistics
There has sharp decrease in the total number of patent application published between the 20th and 26th January 2018. A total of the 687 patent applications have been published of which, 22 applications account for early publications while 665 applications account for ordinary publications or publications occurring after the 18 month period. A total of 257 applications have been granted between this period, thereby marking a marginal increase of about 7.08% in grants.
Early Publications
| City | Previous Week | This Week | Percentage of change |
| Delhi | 30 | 10 | 66.67% decrease |
| Mumbai | 18 | 0 | 100% decrease |
| Chennai | 24 | 11 | 54.17% decrease |
| Kolkata | 3 | 1 | 66.67% decrease |
| Total | 75 | 22 | 70.67% decrease |
Ordinary Publications
| City | Previous Week | This Week | Percentage of change |
| Delhi | 453 | 353 | 22.08% decrease |
| Mumbai | 73 | 79 | 8.22% increase |
| Chennai | 140 | 225 | 60.71% increase |
| Kolkata | 18 | 8 | 55.56% increase |
| Total | 684 | 665 | 2.78% decrease |
TOTAL PUBLICATIONS (Previous Week): 759
TOTAL PUBLICATIONS (This Week): 687
Percentage difference: 9.49% decrease
PUBLICATIONS UNDER GRANT
| City | Previous Week | This Week | Percentage of change |
| Delhi | 78 | 124 | 58.97% increase |
| Mumbai | 29 | 24 | 17.24% decrease |
| Chennai | 91 | 63 | 30.77% decrease |
| Kolkata | 42 | 46 | 9.52% increase |
| Total | 240 | 257 | 7.08% increase |
Number of Applications published based on applicant city
Of the total 687 patent applications published in the journal last week, Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kolkata have contributed a total of 156 applications. The total applications from each of the previously mentioned cities for the past week are as follows – 69 from Delhi, 27 from Bangalore, 20 from Hyderabad, 19 from Mumbai, 18 from Chennai and 3 from Kolkata.
| List of Cities | 1st January 2018 – 26th January 2018 | 20th January – 26th January 2018 |
| Delhi | 193 | 69 |
| Mumbai | 89 | 19 |
| Bangalore | 68 | 27 |
| Chennai | 54 | 18 |
| Hyderabad | 47 | 20 |
| Kolkata | 14 | 3 |
Total number of applications published by the Indian Patent Office from the 1st of January 2018 till date: 3136
- Early publications: 249
- Ordinary Publications: 2887
Total number of patents granted by the Indian Patent Office from the 1st of January 2018 till date: 938
- Delhi – 387
- Mumbai – 95
- Chennai – 300
- Kolkata – 156
First Examination Report (FER) Statistics
A total of 1260 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 | 472 |
| Mumbai | 194 |
| Chennai | 414 |
| Kolkata | 180 |
| Total | 1260 |
Indian Industrial Designs Statistics
The designs office has registered a total of 208 designs this week. This marks an increase of about 1.96% from the total number of designs registered in the previous week. The total designs registered from the 1st of January 2018 till date is 851 applications.
Total designs registered in the previous Week: 204
Total designs registered this Week: 208
Percentage Difference: 1.96% increase
Total designs registered from the 1st of January 2018 till date: 851
Interesting Patents & Designs
The past week has undoubtedly been replete with some interesting patents. Here is a run-up to some interesting patents that we thought might interest you.
Ford’s Robo Police cars
Ford Motors has recently been granted a patent on a technology that appears to be something right out of the Terminator movie series. While self-driving cars or autonomous vehicles are already available in the market, Ford’s most recent patent is on an autonomous vehicle for the police. The US patent application 15/208,500 is titled Autonomous Police Vehicle and the abstract of the patent reads as follows: “Techniques pertaining to an autonomous police vehicle are described. A method may involve a processor associated with an autonomous vehicle obtaining an indication of violation of one or more traffic laws by a first vehicle. The method may also involve the processor maneuvering the autonomous vehicle to pursue the first vehicle. The method may further involve the processor remotely executing one or more actions with respect to the first vehicle.” (The abstract has been taken from the patent specification as is and has not been corrected for errors.)
The weekly patent journal published by the patent office on the 26th of January 2018 contained quite a few interesting inventions. Some of the interesting patent applications from the journal are provided below.
Milking cows with pleasure
Patent Application No.: 201611006003
Title of the Invention: MILKING MACHINE WITH MASSAGE EFFECTS
Applicant: VISHWA KAMAL MEATTLE
Abstract: “The present invention provides a milking machine system having massage effect. In the milking machine system according to the present invention, a unit that gets attached to the animal teats is made up of soft rubber or substance and has a controlled massaging system. This massage unit operates like hand movements used for milking the animal with controlled pressure and soft touch.” (The abstract has been taken from the patent specification as is and has not been corrected for errors.)
A Safe house for cows?
Patent Application No.: 201611006004
Title of the Invention: IMPROVED PORTABLE CATTLE SHED
Applicant: VISHWA KAMAL MEATTLE
Abstract: “The present invention provides portable sheds are that they can be adjusted in the cattle farm according the number of cattle, space available. Portable sheds can be placed according to changing seasons. The portable sheds according to the present invention has sound therapy system, proper lighting system, tunnel ventilation facility including air filtration box and air passing through green house and insulated walls for better comfort of the catties.” (The abstract has been taken from the patent specification as is and has not been corrected for errors.)
Patent Disputes, Infringements and Settlements
Coolpad slams Xiaomi with Patent Infringement suit
Chinese smartphone manufacturer Coolpad has accused Chinese smartphone giant Xiaomi of infringing on several of its patents. Coolpad has alleged that Xiaomi has infringed on Coolpad’s patents relating to app icon management, notifications and system UI that Xiaomi uses in its products. Coolpad has further demanded that Xiaomi halt the production of all those products that infringe on Coolpad’s patents.
Sprint and Cox settle patent lawsuit
Sprint and Cox Communications who had recently locked horns over an alleged patent infringement by Cox have agreed to settle the outstanding patent lawsuit without waiting for the Court’s decision in the matter. Executives from the Kansas based telecom firm Sprint Corporation and Cox Communications announced that the two companies had entered into a multi-year business agreement in order to “strengthen each company” and the companies have requested the Court to dismiss the matter.
Michelin settles design patent lawsuit
Tire manufacturer, Michelin North America Inc. and rival Tire Mart Inc. have agreed to settle a design infringement lawsuit on terms not yet disclosed to the public. The design infringement suit was originally filed by Michelin against Tire Mart Inc., where it accused Tire Mart of copying Michelin’s design patent numbered D530,266.
EU fines Qualcomm
Qualcomm Inc. was slapped with a whopping 997 million euro fine by European Union antitrust regulators last week for paying Apple to use only its chips while blocking out rivals such as Intel Corp. Although Qualcomm has announced that it would file an appeal against the decision of the regulators, the brand new penalty on Qualcomm could spell trouble for the company.
Patent Licensing & Commercialization
Qualcomm signs 2 billion dollar deal
The world most famous chipset manufacturer – Qualcomm has announced that it would be part of a $2 billion agreement with the likes of Lenovo, Xiaomi, Oppo, ZTE, and other OEM’s to help facilitate the development of 5G network. The deal is being seen as major boost for Qualcomm and each of the aforementioned companies as this will help sway shareholders from selling the company.
International Patent Updates
Beijing to set up IPR center to better serve high-tech firms
While China has already been topping the IP charts consistently over the past couple of years, the Chinese government recently announced that it would be setting up an IPR center to cater to the IPR needs of high-tech companies. The center will be set up with an intention to offer fast-track services for patent applications to companies in information technology and high-end equipment production.
China’s patent office received nearly 1.34 million applications for invention patents in 2016, while Chinese inventors filed more than 40,000 international applications in 2016. China also continued to top global trademark applications in 2016, with about 3.7 million trademark applications being filed from the country. The number of valid trademarks registered in China was nearly 12.4 million by the end of 2016.
BananaIP’s Patent / Design Tip of the Week
Responding to a First Examination Report (First Statement of Objections)
Irrespective of the type of examination requested by the applicant i.e, Normal or Expedited, an applicant has six months to respond to the objections raised by the examiner from the date on which the first statement of objections was issued to the applicant. This period may however be further extended for a period of three months by filing a request for extension of time through Form 4. Applicants must however note that the extension may be sought only once.
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 – contact@bananaip.com.
