“Interesting Patents, Uber’s patent application to identify drunk passengers, Tap to speak – Gloves, Patent Agent Examination likely to be conducted this year, Honeywell looking at a ‘David versus Goliath’ like battle, US ITC to probe Toyota and others in patent infringement case, What is a FTO search?, 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
The musical fly swatter was patented in 1994. It played two tunes, one when turned on and the other when it hit a fly. – Source
Indian Patent Statistics
A total of 658 patent applications have been published in the 23rd issue of the patent journal. Out of the 658 applications, 52 applications account for early publications while 606 applications account for ordinary publications or publications occurring after the 18 month period. A total of 254 applications have been granted this week thus marking an increase of about 20.38% in comparison to the number of applications granted in the previous week.
Early Publications
| City | Previous Week | This Week | Percentage of change |
| Delhi | 24 | 12 | 50% decrease |
| Mumbai | 21 | 13 | 38.1% decrease |
| Chennai | 20 | 23 | 15% increase |
| Kolkata | 3 | 4 | 33.33% increase |
| Total | 68 | 52 | 23.53% decrease |
Ordinary Publications
| City | Previous Week | This Week | Percentage of change |
| Delhi | 304 | 157 | 48.36% decrease |
| Mumbai | 83 | 146 | 75.9% increase |
| Chennai | 209 | 226 | 8.13% increase |
| Kolkata | 23 | 77 | 234.78% increase |
| Total | 619 | 606 | 2.1% decrease |
TOTAL PUBLICATIONS (Previous Week): 687
TOTAL PUBLICATIONS (This Week): 658
Percentage difference: 4.22% decrease
First Examination Report (FER) Statistics
A total of 1619 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 | 535 |
| Mumbai | 218 |
| Chennai | 535 |
| Kolkata | 331 |
| Total | 1619 |
PUBLICATIONS UNDER GRANT
| City | Previous Week | This Week | Percentage of change |
| Delhi | 99 | 96 | 3.03% decrease |
| Mumbai | 26 | 26 | No change |
| Chennai | 62 | 71 | 14.52% increase |
| Kolkata | 24 | 61 | 154.17% increase |
| Total | 211 | 254 | 20.38% increase |
Number of Applications published based on applicant city
Of the total 658 patent applications published in the journal last week, Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kolkata have contributed a total of 81 applications. The total applications from each of the previously mentioned cities for the past week are as follows – 23 applications from Bangalore, 19 from Mumbai, 18 from Delhi, 12 from Chennai, 5 applications each from Chennai and Hyderabad and 4 applications from Kolkata.
| List of Cities | 1st January 2018 – 8th June 2018 | 2nd June 2018 – 8th June 2018 |
| Delhi | 557 | 18 |
| Mumbai | 387 | 19 |
| Bangalore | 430 | 23 |
| Chennai | 241 | 12 |
| Hyderabad | 228 | 5 |
| Kolkata | 99 | 4 |
Total number of applications published by the Indian Patent Office from the 1st of January 2018 till date: 16916
- Early publications: 1559
- Ordinary Publications: 15357
Total number of patents granted by the Indian Patent Office from the 1st of January 2018 till date: 6365
- Delhi – 2456
- Mumbai – 734
- Chennai – 1938
- Kolkata – 1227
Indian Industrial Designs Statistics
The designs office has registered a total of 134 designs this week. The total designs registered from the 1st of January 2018 till date now adds to a total of 4420 applications.
Total designs registered in the previous Week: 130
Total designs registered this Week: 134
Percentage Difference: 3.08% increase
Total designs registered from the 1st of January 2018 till date: 4420
Interesting Patents
Uber’s patent application to identify drunk passengers
Uber Technologies, Inc. appears to have filed a patent application with the USPTO titled “PREDICTING USER STATE USING MACHINE LEARNING”. The application US 15/367,139 describes an invention that learns how someone typically uses the Uber app, so that it can identify any unusual behavior. In order to identify drunk passengers, the system uses artificial intelligence and relies on an algorithm to weigh a variety of factors, including typos, how precisely a user clicks on links and buttons, walking speed, and how long it takes to request a ride. The time of day, and where a ride is requested may also be considered.
The abstract text of the patent application reads as follows: “A system coordinates services between users and providers. The system trains a computer model to predict a user state of a user using data about past services. The prediction is based on data associated with a request submitted by a user. Request data can include current data about the user’s behavior and information about the service that is independent of the particular user behavior or characteristics. The user behavior may be compared against the user’s prior behavior to determine differences in the user behavior for this request and normal behavior of prior requests. The system can alter the parameters of a service based on the prediction about the state of the user requesting the service.”(The abstract text has been taken as is and has not been corrected for errors)
Tap to speak
A patent application filed at the Indian Patent Office by an individual inventor – Padam Chopra promises technology that could prove to be nothing short of a boon for the speech impaired. The patent application number 201811017273 is titled “VOICE – A NOVEL WEARABLE GLOVE TO CONVERT FINGER TAPS TO SPEECH”.
The abstract text of the application reads as follows: “VOICE is an aid to help the mute communicate with the mainstream society. It is a wearable glove which has capacitive touch sensors placed on the fingertips and a microprocessor placed at the palm. The touch sensors generate a signal when brought in contact with something conductive, say. the users skin, and it is then stored in the microprocessor. Permutations of finger taps are interpreted as letters based on International Morse Code, as each finger tap corresponds to a dot/dash/new letter and new word signal. Finally, using a Bluetooth module, the converted string of text is sent into a mobile application which converts it to speech. Users can also save the string in the mobile application by associating it with a specific keyword. This keyword can later be used to load the saved phrases, thus enabling easier and faster communication.” (The abstract text has been taken as is and has not been corrected for errors)
Patent Office Updates
Patent Agent Examination likely to be conducted this year
The Indian Patent Office has announced that it is likely to conduct the Patent Agent Examination this year by the end of December. While the dates have not been set out for the examination, the examination may be held in November as was the case in 2016.
Patent /Design Infringements, Disputes, Licensing and Settlements.
Honeywell looking at a ‘David versus Goliath’ like battle
Honeywell International Inc. has been slapped with a patent infringement lawsuit from a Missouri doctor who has alleged that the company stole her idea for a goggle that can be worn comfortably over eyeglasses. In the complaint filed with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri, inventor Basimah Khulusi, is seeking damages for patent infringement and an injunction preventing Honeywell from making, importing, offering to sell, selling or using the patented technology without Khulusi’s permission. Honeywell has however claimed that it does not infringe any of Basimah’s.
US ITC to probe Toyota and others in patent infringement case
US ITC or the US International Trade Commission has said that it would investigate Toyota Motor Corp, Panasonic Corp and certain other companies for alleged patent infringement in certain infotainment systems, components and automobiles containing such systems. The investigation is likely to be carried out based on a complaint filed by Broadcom Inc.
BananaIP’s Patent / Design Tip of the Week
What is a FTO search?
A Freedom to operate (FTO) search enables a company/individual to analyze if his product/process is infringing on in-force patents/patent applications, belonging to a third party. The FTO search is jurisdiction specific, for example, if a company wants to release a product in India, the FTO search performed will take into account patents/patent applications that are filed and in force in India.
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.
