“Fords patents its version of the Batmobile, Gesture Controlled Fire Extinguishing Equipment, Indian Patent Office revokes patent granted to JCB, JPO IPR Training program – FY 2018, Nike alleges patent infringement by Puma, Nikola and Tesla at loggerheads, Samsung R&D Bangalore topper in 5G patent filing, Background section of a patent specification, 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
“The best way to measure innovation is through patents” – Kris Gopalakrishnan, Vice-chairman of Infosys.
Indian Patent Statistics
A total of 616 patent applications have been published in the 18th issue of the patent journal. Out of the 616 applications, 63 applications account for early publications while 553 applications account for ordinary publications or publications occurring after the 18 month period. A total of 250 applications have been granted this week which is 16.28% more than the applications granted in the previous week.
Early Publications
| City | Previous Week | This Week | Percentage of change |
| Delhi | 22 | 25 | 13.64% increase |
| Mumbai | 11 | 0 | 100% decrease |
| Chennai | 20 | 37 | 85% increase |
| Kolkata | 0 | 1 | – |
| Total | 53 | 63 | 18.87% increase |
Ordinary Publications
| City | Previous Week | This Week | Percentage of change |
| Delhi | 286 | 154 | 46.15% decrease |
| Mumbai | 144 | 133 | 7.64% decrease |
| Chennai | 361 | 244 | 32.41% decrease |
| Kolkata | 15 | 22 | 46.67% increase |
| Total | 806 | 553 | 31.39% decrease |
TOTAL PUBLICATIONS (Previous Week): 859
TOTAL PUBLICATIONS (This Week): 616
Percentage difference: 28.29% decrease
First Examination Report (FER) Statistics
A total of 2402 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 | 807 |
| Mumbai | 341 |
| Chennai | 855 |
| Kolkata | 399 |
| Total | 2402 |
PUBLICATIONS UNDER GRANT
| City | Previous Week | This Week | Percentage of change |
| Delhi | 62 | 117 | 88.71% increase |
| Mumbai | 21 | 30 | 42.86% increase |
| Chennai | 87 | 30 | 65.52% decrease |
| Kolkata | 45 | 73 | 62.22% increase |
| Total | 215 | 250 | 16.28% increase |
Number of Applications published based on applicant city
Of the total 616 patent applications published in the journal last week, Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kolkata have contributed a total of 103 applications. The total applications from each of the previously mentioned cities for the past week are as follows – 29 application each from Delhi and Bangalore, 22 from Chennai, 10 from Hyderabad, 8 from Mumbai and 5 from Kolkata
| List of Cities | 1st January 2018 – 4th May 2018 | 27th April 2018 – 4th May 2018 |
| Delhi | 488 | 29 |
| Mumbai | 311 | 8 |
| Bangalore | 327 | 29 |
| Chennai | 226 | 22 |
| Hyderabad | 181 | 10 |
| Kolkata | 77 | 5 |
Total number of applications published by the Indian Patent Office from the 1st of January 2018 till date: 13471
- Early publications: 1188
- Ordinary Publications: 12283
Total number of patents granted by the Indian Patent Office from the 1st of January 2018 till date: 5283
- Delhi – 2032
- Mumbai – 642
- Chennai – 1580
- Kolkata – 1029
Indian Industrial Designs Statistics
The designs office has registered a total of 182 designs this week. The total designs registered from the 1st of January 2018 till date now adds to a total of 3726 applications.
Total designs registered in the previous Week: 202
Total designs registered this Week: 182
Percentage Difference: 9.9% decrease
Total designs registered from the 1st of January 2018 till date: 3726
Interesting Patents
Fords patents its version of the Batmobile
Ford Global Technologies has obtained a patent for an extremely interesting invention titled “Multimodal passenger transportation apparatus”. This multimodal passenger transportation apparatus combines a car with a combustion engine and an electric motorcycle. According to the description of the invention, the transportation apparatus comprises a passenger car and an electric motorcycle which is placed between driver and passenger seat in the direction of travel. A portion of the centre console serves to support the body part of the rider of the motorcycle in an operation state, wherein the motorcycle is detached from the passenger car. Looks like science fiction just got real!
The image below shows the drawing of the “Multimodal passenger transportation apparatus”.
Gesture Controlled Fire Extinguishing Equipment
In what comes across as a certainly creative invention, C. Uthranarayan, an Assitant Professor at the Mepco Schlenk Engineering College based in Tamil Nadu has come up with an invention titled “Gesture Controlled Fire Extinguishing Equipment”. As part of this week’s interesting patents from the official journal of patents, the abstract of the patent application reads as follows:
“Robots are usually used to speed up the process, accuracy and places where humans are liable to injury or loss of life. Firefighting is one such profession where fire fighters are more vulnerable to injury or loss of life. Everyday firemen fight with fire risking their lives. Considering this fact we planned to do a project on firefighting bots which can aid the fire fighters during their rescue or firefighting operation. Gesture controlled fire extinguisher project employs the gesture control technology to put off fire in confined and hazardous environment where firemen cant enter .The robot has a lilypad Arduino for controlling the actuation of the wheels, fire extinguisher and its hose direction. The wireless control is controlled by the user at a considerable distance from the target. A Bluetooth camera is used to locate the fire through a display carried by the controller. The robot is capable of transmitting the signals. It is sure that it would be of a great support for the fire fighters. It can reduce the number of fire fighter accidents to a greater extent. Keywords: Wireless Gesture Control Technology, Dry powder fire extinguisher, Bluetooth camera, Arduino, DC motor, Encoder and Decoder and RF module” (The abstract text has been taken as is and has not been corrected for errors)
Patent Office Updates
JPO IPR Training program – FY 2018
In a notification issued on the 4th of May 2018, the Indian Patent Office has informed all candidates seeking to apply to the “JPO/IPR training course on promoting public awareness of IP” that the last date to apply for the program has been preponed to 18th May 2018 (5 PM). The last date to apply for the other courses remains the same. i.e., 6th July 2018
Patent Infringements, Disputes, Licensing and Settlements.
Indian Patent Office revokes patent granted to JCB
The Indian Patent Office appears to have revoked a patent granted to UK-based earth-moving equipment manufacturer – JC Bamford Excavators Ltd (JCB) for not keeping the Controller informed of a suit filed in the Delhi High Court against the company for alleged patent infringement. While revoking the patent, the patent office also imposed a cost of Rs 10,000 on both the patentee – JCB Excavators and Chinese manufacturer GuangXi Liugong Machinery which filed a post-grant opposition in 2013 and also an infringement lawsuit against the company in the Delhi High Court.
Nike alleges patent infringement by Puma
Footwear manufacturer Nike has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against athletic wear giant Puma, accusing Puma of violating four of Nike’s patents in the US. In the lawsuit, Nike has alleged that Puma violated U.S. patent 7,401,420, which was issued to the brand in 2008 in respect of Nike Air technology. Further, Nike has alleged that Puma is in violation of patents 6,973,746 and 9,314,065 which relate to Nike’s cleat assembly technology. Puma has prima facie denied the allegations and has said that there are no patent infringements in this case and the company will do everything to defend itself against the accusations.
Nikola and Tesla at loggerheads
Utah-based Nikola Motor Company filed a patent-infringement lawsuit against California-based electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla Motors accusing Tesla of violating its design patents for the manufacturing of the Tesla Semi all-electric truck. Nikola Motor has claimed that the US Patent and Trademark Office had issued it 6 design patents during the period February-April 2018 relating to various articles such as wrap windshield, mid-entry door, fuselage, fender, side cladding, and the overall design of the Nikola One.
International Patent / Design Updates
Samsung R&D Bangalore topper in 5G patent filing
Korean technology major Samsung Electronics has said that its research and development (R&D) center in Bangalore is playing an important part of the company’s overall fifth-generation or 5G technology-related developments and patent filing. The company appears to be filing 20- 25% of 5G related patents even though standards are not fully defined. Samsung files over 250-300 patents every year from its Bangalore research and development (R&D) center in India, and has filed around a whopping 2900 patents till date.
BananaIP’s Patent / Design Tip of the Week
Background section of a patent specification
Do not spend too much time in preparing the background section for your patent specification. A good rule of thumb is no more than a maximum of two pages and / or no more than 10 percent of the total content of the application.
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.
