“Interesting Inventions of the Week, International Conference on Emerging Trends of Intellectual Property Rights, Samsung spared in $115 million patent judgment, Apple granted 28 patents in a single day, Bt Cotton cannot be introduced in India says Bayer AG, WIPO Assemblies 2018 Open – Director General Underlines Positive Results and other Weekly Patent News,” presented by the Patent attorneys and experts of BananaIP Counsels, India’s leading Patent Firm.
Interesting patent fact of the Week
On March 3, 1856, a civil engineer, George Alfred DePenning from Kolkata petitioned the Government of India for grant of exclusive privileges for his invention — “An Efficient Punkah Pulling Machine”. He was later granted a patent for the same in September that year.
Indian Patent Statistics
A total of 711 patent applications have been published in the 38th issue of the patent journal. Out of the 711 applications, 19 applications account for early publications while 692 applications account for ordinary publications or publications occurring after the 18 month period. A total of 166 applications have been granted this week thereby marking a decrease of about 32.52% in total grants as compared to the preceding week.
Early Publications
| City | Previous Week | This Week | Percentage of change |
| Delhi | 3 | 0 | 100% decrease |
| Mumbai | 13 | 3 | 76.92% decrease |
| Chennai | 29 | 14 | 51.72% decrease |
| Kolkata | 2 | 2 | No Change |
| Total | 47 | 19 | 59.57% decrease |
Ordinary Publications
| City | Previous Week | This Week | Percentage of change |
| Delhi | 242 | 361 | 49.17% increase |
| Mumbai | 60 | 65 | 8.33% increase |
| Chennai | 260 | 87 | 66.54% decrease |
| Kolkata | 25 | 179 | 616% increase |
| Total | 587 | 692 | 17.89% increase |
TOTAL PUBLICATIONS (Previous Week): 634
TOTAL PUBLICATIONS (This Week): 711
Percentage difference: 12.15% increase
First Examination Report (FER) Statistics
A total of 1486 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 | 626 |
| Mumbai | 204 |
| Chennai | 435 |
| Kolkata | 221 |
| Total | 1486 |
PUBLICATIONS UNDER GRANT
| City | Previous Week | This Week | Percentage of change |
| Delhi | 74 | 63 | 14.86% decrease |
| Mumbai | 42 | 22 | 47.62% decrease |
| Chennai | 78 | 47 | 39.74% decrease |
| Kolkata | 58 | 34 | 41.38% decrease |
| Total | 246 | 166 | 32.52% decrease |
Number of Applications published based on applicant city
Of the total 711 patent applications published in the journal last week, Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kolkata have contributed a total of 77 applications. The total applications from each of the previously mentioned cities are as follows – 20 applications from Delhi, 18 applications from Bangalore, 16 applications from Mumbai, 11 applications from Chennai, 8 applications from Hyderabad and 4 applications from Kolkata.
| List of Cities | 1st January 2018 – 21st September 2018 | 15th September 2018 – 21st September 2018 |
| Delhi | 827 | 20 |
| Mumbai | 658 | 16 |
| Bangalore | 819 | 18 |
| Chennai | 488 | 11 |
| Hyderabad | 365 | 8 |
| Kolkata | 185 | 4 |
Total number of applications published by the Indian Patent Office from the 1st of January 2018 till date: 28220
- Early publications: 2638
- Ordinary Publications: 25582
Total number of patents granted by the Indian Patent Office from the 1st of January 2018 till date: 10041
- Delhi – 3741
- Mumbai – 1216
- Chennai – 3116
- Kolkata – 1974
Indian Industrial Designs Statistics
The designs office has registered a total of 148 designs this week. The total designs registered from the 1st of January 2018 till date now adds to a total of 6359 applications.
Total designs registered in the previous Week: 142
Total designs registered this Week: 148
Percentage Difference: 4.23% increase
Total designs registered from the 1st of January 2018 till date: 6359
Interesting Inventions of the Week
Invention 1 – TRAIN TRAFFIC CONTROL SYSTEM AND TRAIN TRAFFIC CONTROL METHOD
Patent Application No.: 201847033964
Applicant: MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC CORPORATION
Abstract: “This train traffic control system 100 comprises: a people number estimation device 2 which estimates the number of people in a train and the number of people on a station platform 30 using imaging data output from a plurality of in-train cameras 23 and a plurality of ground-side cameras 1; and an operation rescheduling device 9 which uses the people number estimation information estimated by the people number estimation device 2 and the diagram information stored in a traffic management device 8 to predict the boarding/disembarking time in which passengers board and disembark from the train and reschedule train operation. This configuration is able to accurately predict boarding/disembarking times when there are fluctuations in the number of passengers and reschedule train operation.” (The abstract has been provided as is and has not been corrected for errors)
Invention 2 – LOUNGER JET BOAT (LJB)
Patent Application No.: 201821033176
Applicant: Ketankumar Dilipbhai Patel
Abstract: “The lounger jet boat (LJB) is one type of small jet boat, particularly design for single person or personal water craft. LJB is addition of two words ̃Lounger™ and ̃jet boat™, where lounger means a comfortable and adjustable couch or extending chair designed for someone to relax on. One more thing is that it is folding lounger, so this combination lounger plus jet boat has been made in such way that when folding it, it’s become travel bag, so that we can easily carry it with us, without using additional trolley for that. The purpose of behind this idea is to provide all in one water craft, that means in comfortable boating, easily mobile, environment friendly and, of course, joy of driving it in very small amount of money. There are lots of place there that we can drive this craft like river, ponds, swimming pool, beaches and many more.” (The abstract has been provided as is and has not been corrected for errors)
Patent Courses, Seminars, Conferences and others
International Conference on Emerging Trends of Intellectual Property Rights
Rama University, Kanpur is organizing a three day International conference on “Emerging trends of Intellectual Property Right: Issues & Challenges” from the 15th to 17th of November 2018. Academicians, Practitioners, Research Scholars and Students have been invited to submit research papers based on several listed topics. For more details, click here.
Patent /Design Infringements, Disputes, Licensing and Settlements
Samsung spared in $115 million patent judgment
The New York State Court of Appeals has overturned a $115 million judgment issued against Samsung Electronics Co Ltd in a 2015 case. MPEG LA, a group that owns a pool of patents used in television sets, sued Samsung in 2015 on allegations that the electronics maker had improperly terminated contracts with the group and had thereby infringed on the patents owned by the company.
International Patent Updates
Apple granted 28 patents in a single day
On September 18th, the USPTO granted 28 patents to Apple Inc. for its inventions relating to eSIM Technology, a Seamlessly Embedded Heart Rate Monitor among twenty six others. This is perhaps the highest number of grants for a single applicant on a single day this year.
WIPO Assemblies 2018 Open – Director General Underlines Positive Results
In an address to some 1,000 delegates at the opening of the Assemblies of Member States of WIPO, WIPO Director General Francis Gurry outlined WIPO’s excellent performance across the range of its activities and underlined its financial stability at the end of the 2016-2017 biennium, which concluded with a surplus of 55.9 million Swiss Francs. The WIPO Director also added that rapid technological change was driving demand for intellectual property rights and growth in WIPO’s global intellectual property (IP) systems.
Plant Variety Updates
Bt Cotton cannot be introduced in India says Bayer AG
German chemical and pharma major Bayer AG, which has acquired biotech company Monsanto has announced that it cannot introduce new Bt cotton seed technology in India as it has become difficult to make money in India because of royalty issues. While the acquisition of Monsanto has been completed globally, it is still in process in India.
Monsanto which has been has been selling genetically modified (GM) cotton seeds in India has been fighting a legal case against the Indian government’s decision to fix cotton price along with trait value (royalty) under the Cotton Seed Price Control Order while also being involved in a legal dispute with Nuziveedu Seeds over the patent rights of its technology.
Source: Here
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;
