This post was first published on 28th August, 2014.
A computer program is an intellectual creation and can be protected by Intellectual Property (IP) Law, particularly by Copyright and Patent Laws. The manner of IP protection for computer programs is a hot topic of debate, primarily due to the fact that current IP regimes are not effective in dealing with their protection comprehensively. There is a lot of ambiguity with regard to their protection because of the technical complexities in computer programs and the difficulty…
This post was first published on April 24, 2014.
Hridayeshwar Singh Bhati from Jaipur, India, holds a design patent on a 6-player Chess Game. Not impressed? Ok, let's picture this. He was born in 2002, so he's only about 12 years old now. Not satisfied yet? Then how about the fact that he has a condition called Duchene Muscular Dystrophy, which has him confined to a wheelchair!
Sinapse Blog finds it extremely rewarding to bring to its Readers, this item of spectacle of a India's youngest…
This post was first published on 17th July, 2014.
When an individual is struck with an idea and an invention follows, it is advisable for them to gain monopoly over the invention's marketing rights via patent protection through relevant authorities. This write up briefly summaries the essentials of patent filing and protection.
What is an Invention?
An invention is a technological advancement that is not anticipated by publication in any document or used anywhere in the world including the country of the invention, before the date…
This post was first published on 27th April, 2012.
On request of one of our followers, we have revised the blog post titled, "Delhi HC Interprets the Timeline for Pre-grant Representation of a Patent" posted on 24th April. An important and essential question that came up before this Court in the case of Dr. (Miss) Snehlata Gupte vs Union Of India & Ors. was regarding when a patent is said to be granted under the Patents Act, 1970 (“Act”). In this…
This post was first published on 16th July, 2014.
This piece of writing tries to convey an important requirement under the Indian Patent law for an applicant residing in India who wishes to file patent applications outside India, directly.
Any inventor or applicant is free to seek protection anywhere in the world. At times priority is given to a foreign country over India when there is less or no market potential to the invention in India or when the invention falls within…
This post was first published on 6th August, 2014.
A total of more than 420 million Euros was imposed recently as fine by the European Competition Commission on five major Pharma companies for entering into ‘Pay-for-delay’ agreements with Generic companies. These fines and related measures were imposed to restrict the drug majors from entering into these non-competitive kind of deals to maximize their commercial gains. Of the five, the drug maker, Servier has been fined 331 million Euros for the anti-hypertensive…
This post was first published on 19th December, 2014.
It’s a musical world. From the pitter patter of raindrops to pulsating headaches, there is music everywhere. In many languages, voice modulation and tone become part of communication. Ever wondered if a method of creating music could be patented?
Well, that’s exactly what Wacky Patent 4, Mode enhanced Hindustani Music is about. US Patent Application No. 10/082,777 filed in February, 2002 by two inventors of Indian Origin, Prabhakar Prahlad Jamkhedkar and Prashant Prabhakar Jamkhedkar, was granted…
This post was first published on Aug 6th, 2013.
The IPAB (Intellectual Property Apellate Board) issued an order regarding patentability of a patent application which claimed a specific application of a mathematical method.
3624/DELNP/2005 was filed as a National Phase application by Electronic Navigation Research Institute, Japan at the Delhi Patent Office in August 17, 2005 . The patent application relates to a system for analyzing a time series signal by a method based on Chaos Theory and calculating…
This post was first published on 16th July, 2014.
We will today discuss a case in the Indian Patent history that showcases how the IPAB and the IPO analyse the Inventive Step or Obviousness of an invention.
Green Cross Holdings (Appellant) v/s Controller of Patents and Deputy Controller of Patents (Respondents)
Case: This judgment, passed on June 18th, 2014 by the IPAB, was based on an appeal made by Green Cross Holdings against the order made by Deputy Controller of Patents on…
This post was first published on 15th October, 2014.
In the final post of this series, we shall be looking into the concept of software patents and examining the extent to which patent law is effective in protecting computer programs.
As mentioned earlier, protection of computer programs under the Copyright Law is limited to the protection of the literal elements of a computer program, i.e., the source code and the object code, and does not extend to the underlying idea and…