“Interesting patents and designs based on Christmas, Invisible Christmas Tree, CII IP awards – TCS and Samsung awarded, Nike’s patented technology challenged by Adidas, Sprint sues Mediacom, Ericsson awarded 75 million dollars in damages, Qualcomm seeks ban on iPhone X, LG Electronics and InterDigital enter into patent licensing agreement, China becomes top patent filer in 2016, Requesting examination of a divisional application in India, 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
“Risk of patent infringement is relative, often wrapped and presented in absolute terms” – Dr. Kalyan C. Kankanala, Renowned IP Attorney, Professor and Author
Indian Patent Statistics
There has been a slight decrease in the total number of patent applications that have been published this week by the Indian Patent Office. A total of 1297 patent applications have been published this week as opposed to a higher 1804 applications published last week. Of the 1297 patent applications, 87 applications account for early publications while 1210 applications are ordinary publications or publications occurring after the 18 month period. Grants have also decreased this week by 9.26%.
Early Publications
| City | Previous Week | This Week | Percentage of change |
| Delhi | 35 | 28 | 20% decrease |
| Mumbai | 26 | 10 | 61.54% decrease |
| Chennai | 25 | 19 | 24% decrease |
| Kolkata | 1 | 30 | 2900% increase |
| Total | 87 | 87 | No change |
Ordinary Publications
| City | Previous Week | This Week | Percentage of change |
| Delhi | 835 | 629 | 24.67% decrease |
| Mumbai | 289 | 194 | 32.87% decrease |
| Chennai | 409 | 156 | 61.86% decrease |
| Kolkata | 184 | 231 | 25.54% increase |
| Total | 1717 | 1210 | 29.53% decrease |
TOTAL PUBLICATIONS (Previous Week): 1804
TOTAL PUBLICATIONS (This Week): 1297
Percentage difference: 28.1% decrease
PUBLICATIONS UNDER GRANT
| City | Previous Week | This Week | Percentage of change |
| Delhi | 106 | 93 | 12.26% decrease |
| Mumbai | 36 | 24 | 33.33% decrease |
| Chennai | 83 | 87 | 4.82% increase |
| Kolkata | 45 | 41 | 8.89% decrease |
| Total | 270 | 245 | 9.26% decrease |
Number of Applications published based on applicant city
Of the total 1297 patent applications published this week, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Chennai, Delhi and Hyderabad have contributed a total of 124 applications. The total applications from each of the previously mentioned cities are as follows – 19 from Mumbai, 33 from Bangalore, 23 from Delhi, 11 from Chennai, 18 from Hyderabad and 20 from Kolkata.
| List of Cities | 1st January 2017 – till date | 2nd December 2017 to 8th December 2017 |
| Mumbai | 1557 | 19 |
| Bangalore | 1409 | 33 |
| Delhi | 842 | 23 |
| Chennai | 912 | 11 |
| Hyderabad | 543 | 18 |
| Kolkata | 403 | 20 |
Total number of applications published by the Indian Patent Office from the 1st of January 2017 till 8th December 2017: 35669
- Early publications: 2926
- Ordinary Publications: 32743
Total number of patents granted by the Indian Patent Office from the 1st of January 2017 till 8th December 2017: 12158
- Delhi – 4998
- Mumbai – 1263
- Chennai – 4079
- Kolkata – 2308
First Examination Report (FER) Statistics
A total of 1490 FER’s have been issued this 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 | 491 |
| Mumbai | 245 |
| Chennai | 499 |
| Kolkata | 255 |
| Total | 1490 |
Indian Industrial Designs Statistics
The designs office at Kolkata has registered a total of 234 designs this week. This marks an increase of about 0.86% from the total number of designs registered in the previous week. The total designs registered from the 1st of January 2017 till date now adds to 9232 applications.
Total designs registered in the previous Week: 232
Total designs registered this Week: 234
Percentage Difference: 0.86% increase
Total designs registered from the 1st of January 2017 till date: 9232
Interesting Patents & Designs
“Tis the season to be jolly, Fa la la la la, la la la la…..” With people around the world gearing up for the winter holidays and celebrating the season, we have decided to list down some interesting patents and designs from across the world which are based on the theme of Christmas in our news update for today and the future news updates until the New Year.
Patent Application 1
Everyone needs to gift! This is especially true if you are playing Secret Santa like here at BananaIP Counsels. How about doing away with the traditional gift packaging and packing your gifts with a “POPwrap”? If you agree, you need to check out the US patent application 15/168,287. The abstract text of the patent reads as follows: “A new concept combining bubble wrap and wrapping paper placed into a new and more fitting context. A wrapping paper constructed of appropriately-designed bubble wrap that is wrapped casually, creatively, and even wildly around a gift and presented at celebrations to children and adults to tear apart and pop in any number of ways. The combination of two typecast concepts: bubble wrap and wrapping paper into something new, POPwrap™, placed in a new and more fitting context of celebration, fundamentally changes the traditional concepts of both into a fun, exciting, taboo-breaking, relevant, inexpensive, and contextual product of limitless proportions.” (The abstract has been taken from the patent specification as is and has not been corrected for errors.)
Patent Application 2
Play tents have always been attractive, irrespective of whether you are an adult or a child. This Chinese patent application numbered 201510929827 titled “Children’s Christmas play tent” discloses “a children Christmas game tent with novel structure, comprising a tent main body and a connecting passage two openings at two ends, wherein a main tent gate is arranged on the tent main body, a ventilating opening is formed at the upper end of the tent main body, a lateral tent connecting gate matched with the connecting passage is arranged at one side of the tent main body, the upper end of the lateral tent connecting gate is connected with the tent main body, the lower end of the lateral tent connecting gate is separated from the tent main body, a first connecting buckle is arranged on the tent main body on each of two sides of the lateral tent connecting gate, a first connecting rope is arranged on the tent main body at the upper end of the lateral tent connecting gate, second connecting ropes matched with the first connecting buckles are respectively arranged at two sides of one end of the connecting passage, and a second connecting buckle matched with the first connecting rope is further arranged on one end of the connecting passage” (The abstract has been taken from the patent specification as is and has not been corrected for errors.)
Design 1
The first interesting design application on our list is titled “Invisible Christmas Tree”. The US design application US D795,128 S looks beautiful in reality as can be seen the image below. The Christmas bell hung on a nylon string make the tree appear invisible and as if floating in mid air.
Image source: Dailyedge
Design 2
The second interesting design application is numbered US D784,186 S and is titled “Labrador retriever Christmas stocking”. As seen in the image, this stocking is shaped like a lab retriever’s face and can be hung up just about anywhere to add the needed charm and appeal in any environment.
Image Source: https://www.hearthhounds.com/products/chocolate-lab
General Patent Updates
Samsung bags CII Intellectual Property Award Y2017
Samsung R&D Institute India – Bangalore received the runner up award in the category of Top Patent Driven Industry of the year (Large Enterprise) at the 3rd edition of ‘International IPR Conference on Protection of Intellectual Property and Enforcement in the face of Industry 4.0’ held in New Delhi. The event was jointly organized by CII, Indian Patent Office and Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion.
The CII Industrial Intellectual Property Awards were conferred on eight outstanding companies in the categories of patents and trademarks including Tata Consultancy Services, Samsung R&D Institute India – Bangalore, Apex Laboratories Private Limited, Optimus Drug Pvt Ltd., Tata Chemicals Ltd, Tata Steel Ltd. and Resil Chemicals Pvt Ltd.
Patent disputes, Infringement and settlements
Sprint to sue Mediacom for patent infringement
Sprint Corporation, the American telecom company has announced that it would be suing London based media agency networks, Mediacom for 13 counts of patent infringement related to the telecom company’s voice-over-packet (VoP) technology. Sprint has previously sued companies such as Vonage, Cox, Comcast, Cable One and Time Warner Cable, among others quite successfully.
Ericsson wins 75 million dollar verdict
Telecom equipment manufacturer Ericsson Inc has been awarded a $75 million verdict in a patent infringement case involving the telecom equipment manufacturer and TCL Communications. A Texas federal jury found that Ericsson was able to prove that TCL Communication Technology Holdings had infringed on claims in a patent covering a system for controlling software in mobile devices and therefore entitled Ericsson to $75 million in damages.
Qualcomm now seeks ban on iPhone X
In the latest update from the Qualcomm – Apple war saga, Qualcomm has filed a new patent infringement lawsuit against the Cupertino-based tech giant alleging the company of infringing the chip maker’s patents, including some relating to improving bandwidth in devices, saving power and enhancing photos from the rear-facing camera. Qualcomm has claimed that Apple copied some of the elements of the Palm OS, which Qualcomm obtained the rights to in 2014 and therefore now wants the iPhone X banned in the US.
Nike and Adidas in fresh legal battle over Nike’s key shoe material patent
Adidas, the German sportswear manufacturer has filed an official appeal with the U.S. Federal Court of Appeals, in an effort to overturn a recent decision of the US Patent Trial and Appeal Board upholding Nike’s Flyknit patent. Nike Inc., the American sportswear manufacturer was granted a patent over a key shoe material back in 2012. Adidas however has been claiming that the patent granted to Nike is obvious and therefore not patentable under Section 103 of the U.S. patent law. Flyknit is one of Nike’s most beloved shoe materials and this makes the lawsuit extremely important for Nike.
Patent Licensing, Commercialization and Acquisitions
InterDigital and LG Electronics sign multi-year patent license agreement
InterDigital, Inc., a wireless research and development company has entered into a multi-year, non-exclusive patent license agreement with LG Electronics. News reports indicate that the license agreement covers the 3G, 4G and 5G terminal unit products of LG and its affiliates and sets forth a royalty of cash payments to InterDigital as well as a process for the transfer of patents from LG to InterDigital. The parties have also agreed to dismiss any outstanding litigation between InterDigital and LG and their affiliates.
International Patent Updates
China Tops Patent, Trademark, Design Filings in 2016
WIPO in its latest press release has stated that over 3.1 million patent applications were filed in 2016 which marked a seventh straight yearly increase in patent filings. The filings shot up in the range of 8.3% in 2016 with China receiving about 236,600 of the nearly 240,600 additional patent filings accounting for 98% of the total growth. China has single handedly managed to file more patent applications than the United States, Japan, South Korea and the EU combined.
BananaIP’s Patent Tip of the Week
Request for Examination of a Divisional application in India
Determining the deadline for filing a request for examination in certain cases might be tricky and in some cases outright controversial. While it is clearly known that a divisional application may be filed any time before the grant of a patent either voluntarily or upon the directions of the controller, the deadline to request for examination of a divisional application often confuses applicants. Reading rule 24B (1)(iv) of the Patent Rules makes it quite clear that a request for examination of a divisional application must be made either within forty-eight months from the date of priority / date of filing of the parent application or within six months from the date of filing of the divisional application, whichever is later.
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.
