In this week’s Patent News – Patent Rules amended second time this year, major changes in fee structure for small enterprises; German Appeals Court stays Nokia’s enforcement of injunction against Lenovo; Flipkart acquires Mech Mocha’s IP, forays into gaming space; EPO signs Reinforced Partnership agreement with Columbia; and WIPO launches New Patent Information Tool – WIPO INSPIRE.
Indian Patent News
Patent Rules amended second time this year, major changes in fee structure for small enterprises
Patent (2nd Amendment) Rules, 2020
The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry in a major move towards incentivizing Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises has decided to entirely do away with the slab of fees that were earlier applicable to MSMEs. According to the official notification dated 4th November 2020 published by the Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trademarks on the 6th of November 2020, Small entities will now have to pay the same costs that were earlier applicable only to individuals (Natural persons) and Start-ups.
Based on the notification, MSMEs are now eligible for a 90% fee reduction as opposed to the 50% fee reduction that was available to them earlier. This implies that, where a small entity earlier paid 4000 INR as the basic patent filing fee will now only have to pay 1600 INR as basic patent filing fee.
The full notification may be viewed and accessed here.
PATENT INFRINGEMENT NEWS UPDATES
German Appeals Court stays Nokia’s enforcement of injunction against Lenovo
In September 2020, a ruling by a German Court held Lenovo guilty of infringing 20 patents owned by Nokia. The Munich Court had issued an injunction and ordered a recall of all infringing products after which Nokia enforced the injunction against Lenovo. Lenovo filed an appeal against the ruling of the lower court with the German Appeals Court requesting a stay on the injunction. The German Court stating that “based on the high probability that the decision cannot be expected to be upheld on appeal,” has ordered a stay of the Munich Court’s ruling.
Flipkart acquires Mech Mocha’s IP, forays into gaming space
E-commerce giant, Flipkart has acquired the Intellectual Property of Mech Mocha, a gaming start-up based in India. Vice-President of Flipkart, Prakash Sikaria said “Through this transaction, we will strengthen our capabilities in the gaming domain with access to Mech Mocha’s IP, games and talented team that will help us accelerate our efforts in space.”
INTERNATIONAL PATENTS AND DESIGNS NEWS UPDATES
WIPO launches new patent information tool called WIPO INSPIRE
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) launched a new patent information tool last week, aimed at providing free access to comprehensive reports on patent databases. The new tool – WIPO Index of Specialized Patent Information Reports (INSPIRE) brings information from four databases in a single place for the benefit of innovators, service providers, patent offices and other stakeholders. As per the official notification, the tool offers “easy-to-use functionalities” for new as well as expert patent information users. WIPO INSPIRE includes an interactive world database coverage map that allows users to establish the extent of the patent databases coverage of a specific jurisdiction.
Source: https://www.wipo.int/tisc/en/news/2020/news_0004.html
EPO signs Reinforced Partnership agreement with Columbia
On 4th November 2020, The EPO signed a ‘Reinforced Partnership agreement’ with the Superintendent of Industry and Commerce of Colombia with the objective of strengthening co-operation. According to the official notification on the EPO website, the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed by the President of EPO, António Campinos and Colombia’s Superintendent of Industry and Commerce, Andrés Barreto, during a virtual meeting. The MoU allows the Superintendence to use EPO’s products, tools and practices, for the next five years, when granting national patents. The EPO President said “This agreement will not only improve the quality and efficiency of handling patent applications, which is key as Colombia moves to strengthen its knowledge economy, but will also help align our patent systems to better support the global technology market.”
Source: https://www.epo.org/news-events/news/2020/20201104.html
Authored and compiled by Vibha Amarnath
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1 Comments
Chaitra Gowda
informative