Patent Prosecution strategy, Interesting Designs, Patent Agent Examination 2018, GNLU patent course, Amazon’s cage patent and more

“Patent Prosecution strategy, Interesting Designs, Patent Agent Examination – 2018 Registration extension, Certificate Course on “Patent Law Practices in the United States, India and China” by GNLU, Ericsson demands arbitration in HTC dispute, Amazon’s ‘cage for workers’ patent faces severe criticism, ARIPO to launch Free Regional Intellectual Property Database 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

“Patent prosecution is a lot like a game of chess. It requires skill, strategy and sacrifice.” – Gaurav Mishra, BananaIP Counsels.

Indian Patent Statistics

A total of 634 patent applications have been published in the 37^th issue of the patent journal. Out of the 634 applications, 47 applications account for early publications while 587 applications account for ordinary publications or publications occurring after the 18 month period. A total of 246 applications have been granted this week thereby marking a decrease of about 7.51% in total grants as compared to the preceding week.

Early Publications

City	Previous Week	This Week	Percentage of change
Delhi	32	3	90.62% decrease
Mumbai	44	13	70.45% decrease
Chennai	20	29	45% increase
Kolkata	20	2	90% decrease
Total	116	47	59.48% decrease

Ordinary Publications

City	Previous Week	This Week	Percentage of change
Delhi	625	242	579.35% increase
Mumbai	64	60	13.51% decrease
Chennai	147	260	46.15% decrease
Kolkata	3	25	92.5% decrease
Total	839	587	30.03% decrease

TOTAL PUBLICATIONS (Previous Week): 955

TOTAL PUBLICATIONS (This Week): 634

Percentage difference: 33.61% decrease

First Examination Report (FER) Statistics

A total of 1131 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	300
Mumbai	171
Chennai	429
Kolkata	231
Total	1131

PUBLICATIONS UNDER GRANT

City	Previous Week	This Week	Percentage of change
Delhi	94	74	21.27% decrease
Mumbai	38	42	10.52% increase
Chennai	79	78	1.26% decrease
Kolkata	55	58	5.45% increase
Total	266	246	7.51% decrease

 

Number of Applications published based on applicant city

Of the total 634 patent applications published in the journal last week, Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kolkata have contributed a total of 93 applications. The total applications from each of the previously mentioned cities are as follows – 20 applications from Bangalore, 16 applications from Mumbai, 19 applications from Delhi, 19 applications from Chennai, 14 applications from Hyderabad and 5 applications from Kolkata.

List of Cities	1st January 2018 – 14th September 2018	7th  September 2018 – 14th September 2018
Delhi	807	19
Mumbai	642	16
Bangalore	801	20
Chennai	477	19
Hyderabad	357	14
Kolkata	181	5

Total number of applications published by the Indian Patent Office from the 1st of January 2018 till date: 27509

• Early publications: 2619
• Ordinary Publications: 24890

Total number of patents granted by the Indian Patent Office from the 1st of January 2018 till date: 9875

• Delhi – 3678
• Mumbai – 1194
• Chennai – 3069
• Kolkata – 1940

Indian Industrial Designs Statistics

The designs office has registered a total of 142 designs this week. The total designs registered from the 1^st of January 2018 till date now adds to a total of 6211 applications.

Total designs registered in the previous Week: 145

Total designs registered this Week: 142

Percentage Difference: 2.06% decrease

Total designs registered from the 1st of January 2018 till date: 6211

Interesting Designs

In the design journal published on the 14^th of September, 2018, an interesting design has been granted registration by the designs office, Kolkata. The design pertains to the design of a Bottle. The design no. 278147 is titled “Bottle” and has been registered under Class 09-01, which pertains to Bottles, Flasks, Pots, Carboys, Demijohns, and containers with dynamic dispensing mean. The bottle as shown below is designed in a unique manner, making it look somewhat similar to a snail’s shell.

 

India Patent updates

Patent Agent Examination – 2018 Registration extension

In order to facilitate the completion of the application process for aspirants from flood affected areas of various parts of the nation, the online registrations for patent agent examination has been re-opened from the 14^th of September 2018 and will remain open until 3 PM of 20^th September 2018. Applicants interested in registering for the exam may do so using the online portal at ipindia or by clicking here.

Patent Courses, Seminars, Conferences and others

Certificate Course on “Patent Law Practices in the United States, India and China” by GNLU

Gujarat National Law University and the George Washington University Law School, are jointly hosting a two day Certificate Course on “Patent Law Practices in the United States, India and China” on the 3^rd and 4^th of October 2018 at Gujarat National Law University, Gujarat.

Topics to be covered: Patent eligibility/ineligibility; Utility; Novelty; Non-obviousness; e Specification and Objective Disclosure Doctrines (Written Description and Enablement); Claim Construction and Indefiniteness; and Infringement.

To know how to register and read more about this, please click here – Livelaw.in

Patent /Design Infringements, Disputes, Licensing and Settlements

Ericsson demands arbitration in HTC dispute

Ericsson has demanded that a complaint from HTC over standard-essential patent (SEP) royalties should be decided in arbitration, and is not within the jurisdiction of a US District Court. This demand from Ericsson comes after HTC sued Ericsson in April this year at the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas accusing Ericsson of refusing to accept HTC’s fair and reasonable royalty rate calculations to licence Ericsson’s SEPs related to cellular and wireless networks.

International Patent updates

Amazon’s ‘cage for workers’ patent faces severe criticism

Amazon has filed absurd patent applications before but the patent granted to the e-commerce giant recently by the USPTO appears to have taken absurdity to another level. The patent, titled “System and Method for transporting Personnel within an active Workspace” (Patent no. 9280157) was issued to Amazon in the March of 2016 but was brought to light recently through a research paper presented by AI ethics researchers Kate Crawford and Vladen Joler.

While many people were horrified at the idea, Amazon was quick to clarify that the system was never implemented and said the cage was designed for worker safety. Recently Amazon has come under fire for its working conditions. An undercover journalist reported that workers were peeing in bottles to avoid missing targets, which Amazon denied later.

ARIPO to launch Free Regional Intellectual Property Database

The African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO) has launched a Regional Intellectual Property (IP) database to promote trade in Africa. The centralized database with published IP titles from the ARIPO Member States will not only be accessible online but will be free for all. The ARIPO Regional IP Database it appears will have information from ARIPO, Botswana, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

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;