In this week’s Patent News – India and U.S.A sign MoU to strengthen Intellectual Property Rights; Office of CGPDTM publishes list of new facilitators under SIPP Scheme; MeitY Director observes two-fold increase in the number of IP applications filed by Startups; Illumina moves U.S District Court for preliminary injunction against BGI in a patent infringement suit; Nanoco files patent infringement lawsuit against Samsung and other news updates.
INDIA PATENT NEWS
India and U.S.A sign MoU to strengthen Intellectual Property Rights
Ahead of U.S President Donald Trump’s visit to India later this week, India and U.S.A have signed a “knowledge sharing agreement” with the objective to strengthen Intellectual Property ties between the two countries. According to the Minister of Information and Broadcasting, Shri Prakash Javadekar, the MoU was signed on Wednesday after receiving an approval from the Union Cabinet. As reported by The Economic Times, the agreement comes in the light of the recent International IP Index published by the U.S Chamber of Commerce where India slipped to the 40th position this year from the 36th position in 2019. In addition to this, India has continued to remain on the Priority Watch List of the U.S. While the terms of the MoU remain undisclosed, an official has said that the MoU does not contain any implementation of laws. However, a number of training sessions will be held and opportunities to travel to each other’s countries will be provided for field experts and officials to study the IPR regime of the other country.
Office of CGPDTM publishes list of new facilitators under SIPP Scheme
On 19th February 2020, the Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks (CGPDTM) published three separate lists containing the names of the Facilitators for Patents, Designs and Trade Marks under the SIPP scheme. The lists essentially contain the names of all the Facilitators that were added on 18th February 2020 along with the names of the existing Facilitators. As per Annexure 1, the list that contains the names of the Facilitators for Patents and Designs, 289 Facilitators have been added to the existing list. With respect to the Facilitators exclusively for Designs, 10 names have been added to the list this year.
You may click here to access the official public notice.
MeitY Director observes two-fold increase in the number of IP applications filed by Startups
During a seminar that was recently organized by NASSCOM Centre of Excellence, Shri Ajai Kumar Garg, Director of Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), said that the number of Intellectual Property applications filed by Startups have almost doubled in the last six years. The Director has associated the increase in the number of filings with the changes brought by the National IPR Policy in 2016. According to the Director, about six years ago, 4000 to 4500 intellectual property applications were being filed annually in the country and today, the numbers have increased by two-fold. He also said that the Central as well as the State Government has provided good support to Startups and MSME’s to “create a better footprint” in the world of IP.
PATENT DISPUTES/INFRINGEMENT/SETTLEMENTS/LICENSING
Illumina moves U.S District Court for preliminary injunction against BGI in a patent infringement suit
Illumina Inc., an American company engaged in offering sequencing and array-based solutions of genetic variation in the fields of cancer research and agriculture, recently moved the U.S District Court for the Northern District of California seeking a preliminary injunction against BGI Group. The American company has moved the court in order to stop BGI from distributing “sequencing systems and reagents” that allegedly infringe Illumina’s patent. Illumina has emphasized on the importance of securing the injunction by stating that BGI has planned to offer the products at issue on a “no-cost trial basis” to target consumers.
The patent infringement suit against BGI was originally filed in U.S.A in June 2019. In addition to this, Illumina has instituted similar suits against the company in countries like Turkey, Denmark and Switzerland.
Nanoco files patent infringement lawsuit against Samsung
Nanoco Technologies Ltd., a U.K based nanotechnology company, has instituted a lawsuit against Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., and its affiliates for alleged infringement of its patent related to quantum dots. The Quantum dots produced by Nanoco are most commonly used in the making of display screens. Nanoco has instituted the suit in the U.S District Court of Texas. The British company claims that Samsung has willfully infringed its patent and is now seeking monetary damages as well as a permanent injunction.
Patent troll, Neodron files infringement suit against Apple and others
Neodron, an Irish patent troll, has filed a lawsuit against Apple Inc. and others alleging the companies of using its patented keyboard technology. The suit involves four of Neodron’s patents that were filed with the USPTO between 2010 and 2016. In addition to instituting a suit against Apple, the patent troll has filed similar cases on the same day, involving the same patents, against Amazon, L.G., Sony, Microsoft, ASUS and Samsung. As reported by Apple Insider, Neodron purchased the patents at issue from Amtel Corporation after being acquired by Microchip Technology in 2016.
Authored and compiled by Vibha Amarnath
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