Sagacious research newsletter-23rd aug-2013

© 2007 - 2013 Sagacious Research. All Rights Reserved.

www.sagaciousresearch.com

India has experienced enormous economic growth over the past two decades due to the

economic reforms that opened India‟s markets to global investors. During this time,

India has worked hard to balance the rights of patent holders and meet the needs of its

socio-economically backward population. But from time to time; India has faced severe

criticism from other nations like US for not abiding the patent laws. The Supreme Court

ruling of April denying US multinational Novartis‟ request to retain the patent on a

cancer drug was disliked by America‟s corporate and they alleged India as a Nation

extremely hostile towards patent laws. Indian ambassador to the US, Nirupama Rao,

thus intervened in the matter and assured US that this is hardly evidence of a climate

hostile to either innovation or US-based companies.

Indian Patent Office issued more than 4000 patents from 2005 to 2011 for

pharmaceutical inventions. Of those granted, 20-30% was awarded to US-based

companies each year.

Citing this case, she explained that Indian court ruling only reinforced the premium that

should be placed on actually novel patents, strengthening, not weakening, the sanctity

of patent laws. Besides this, in past six decades, India has issued one compulsory license

on a compound pharmaceutical not to weaken but only strengthen the patent laws.

To further assert India‟s commitment to enhance India-US strategic partnership as they

cooperate on health care, disease control and prevention, she added that Indian

Intellectual property laws passed over past forty years have extensively protected

patents and trademarks. The amendments to Patents Act of 1970 in 1999, 2002 and

2005, is exemplary in the developing world. Also, India is committed to comply with

international treaties such as the Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS)

agreement of the World Trade Organization.

S A G A C I O U S U P D A T E S

Sagacious Welcomes New

Batch of 1o Techn0-Legal

Patent Analysts In Its

Team

Sagacious Research recently

hired 10 Patent Analysts in

multiple domains. These

analysts come from renowned

colleges like BITs- Pilani,

National Institute of Technology,

IIIT & IP-University. With this,

Sagacious Research is now

having a team of over 70 techno-

legal experts divided in multiple

teams.

India’s Assurance to US

– Patent Laws Are

Complied

“The Patents Act of 1970,

amended in 1999, 2002 and 2005,

is considered a model in the

developing world. Critics who say

otherwise are simply wrong.”-

Nirupama Rao

Vol- 1, Date: 23rd August, 2013

G E N E R A L N E W S

Follow Us at:

We Believe in Building Trust…



The data sourced from the Office of Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks, India reveals that on August 13, 2013, 1,

58,449 patent applications, where requests for examination have been filed, are pending in India. Delhi has maximum number (57,385) of

pending patent applications and is closely followed by Chennai (52,891), Kolkata (29,223) and Mumbai (18,950).

Government has blamed the shortage of patent examiners and substantive increase in filing of patent applications in India for this dismal

scenario. Government also claims that it has completed the process of selection of 248 patent examiners. But, the fact is that its close

competitor China has recently updated its patent system while India has not taken any concrete move in this direction.

It is a fact that the grant of patents is a quasi-judicial process and is inherently time-consuming as it involves execution of a process

including several steps such as filing of requests for examination, examination of the application, publication of the application, and

disposal of filed pre-grant oppositions. Already, India has been constantly facing severe criticism from the side of US Pharmaceutical

multinationals and US Govt. for having harsh patent laws and not working towards creating a favorable IP environment. So, if urgent

counter-measures are not taken, it will adversely impact the image of Indian patent system on the global scale.

U.S. consumer electronics giant filed 259 invention patent applications and 132 design patent applications outshining all other foreign

countries. Samsung, its most powerful competitor stands second in terms of design patent applications and ranks 16th among foreign

applicants in the invention patent category.

Earlier Apple did not file many patents in Taiwan. But taking heed of the mounting competition in the smartphone market in recent

past, Apple made a conscious decision to follow the aggressive approach of Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC Corp. and began

seeking more protection for its Intellectual Property. In a bid to outshine its competitors like HTC and Samsung, Apple filed 65 times

more design patent applications and almost equal number of invention patent applications in 2013. In contrast, only 124 invention

patent applications and 32 design patent applications were filed by HTC while Samsung Electronics Co. filed 93 smartphone-related

patent applications and 85 design patent applications in this six-month period.

Filings on Rise but 1.58L Patent Applications Remain Pending in

India

Delhi has 57385, followed closely by Chennai 52891, Kolkata 29223 & Mumbai 18950

It is high time that Indian Government realize that patent system of country plays a

vital role in strengthening the economy and a favorable IP environment brings in

more FDI. As such, every country across the globe is committed to update and

strengthen its patent system while India is still lagging behind.

In already grim Indian IP environment, a recent and shocking revelation that around

1.58 lakh patent applications are awaiting examination in all the Indian Patent Offices

spread across Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata and Mumbai comes as a big blow.

The written reply of Minister of State for Commerce and Industry, EM Sudarsana

Natchiappan, to the Parliament of India has revealed a grim picture at Indian Patent

Offices.

IPO Statistics Revelation- Apple Tops Foreign Patent Filings in

Taiwan

U.S. consumer electronics giant filed 259 invention patent applications and 132 design patent

applications.

In the recent report of Intellectual Property Office (IPO) for the January-June period

of 2013, Apple Inc. has conquered the top slot for foreign patent filings in Taiwan.

IPO‟s statistics report for the first half of this year has recently released. It reports

that Apple has filed maximum patents in both patent application categories for the

very first time in Taiwan.



A gazing log will be made accessible to users by Google which will track the identified items viewed by them and exactly tell what they

were looking at for a specified amount of time.

What comes as a great relief is that this method would not tell what you looked at, but only that for how long you looked at it. Then,

Google will be able to charge advertisers based on time a user spent looking at, say an advertisement, in some Google application.

The whole idea is genuinely interesting though the practical implementation and feasibility of this method remains questionable until

Google implements it in the public domain.

The oldest Jobs-contributed patent application dates back to Sept. 26, 2002, and the most recent was filed a year after Steve Jobs died.

Many of these are yet to be reviewed and it‟s impossible to tell when and which patent will be Steve Jobs‟ last.

STOP STARING!

GOOGLE’s creepiest patent is watching you.

A crazy and weird patent has been filed by Google in the area of wearable technology. A

method has been developed by Google to exactly tell what users are gazing at and for how long.

In their patent filing, an explanation of this method is given which uses a front facing camera

and a camera that tracks eye movement.

In this method, a gaze tracking technique is implemented that uses a head mounted gaze

tracking device communicating with a server. The server receives scene images from the

tracking device which captures external scenes viewed by a user wearing it and also receives

gaze direction information. This information indicates where exactly the user was gazing while

viewing the external scenes. An image recognition algorithm is executed on the scene images to

identify items within the external scenes viewed by the user.

T E C H N O L O G Y

Steve Jobs Still Earning Patent USPTO has recently granted a design patent in his name. This design patent is for an

ornamental building panel for a store

USPTO records have revealed some incredible information about the

Intellectual Property in name of legendary Steve Jobs.

Steve Jobs is still earning patents in his name and USPTO has recently

granted a design patent in his name. This design patent is for an ornamental

building panel for a store. The first patent granted in his name, in contrast,

was for an ornamental design of a computer.

Steve was a legendary inventor and majority of his patents are design patents

only. As per USPTO records, Steve Jobs name appears on 402 patents of

Apple as inventor.



title of ruling head in the world of digital communication devices. The plot of their war revolves much around the story of Pacific Rim,

where the aliens unlock their bio weapons Kaijus to conquer the Earth and the human join hands to create Jaegers, oversized

humanoids piloted by two humans whose brains are connected to each other by neural bridges. Kaijus, the colossal monsters make

multiple attempts in various parts of the world to destroy the humanoids, the establishments made by the human kind but on their way

stood these gigantic humanoids, invented specially to protect the human race from the constant and repetitive conquests made by

Kaijus.

Similarly, the US tech giant Apple and the Korean tech giant Samsung seem to be in a constant war to accrue larger market share, larger

share of profits and to pull each other‟s products off the market shelves.

The saga began in April 2011, when Apple accused Samsung for copying design of the hardware and software features like double-tap

zooming. Samsung counter-sued Cupertino-based Apple for infringing on its software patents. Samsung was found guilty of the

infringements by courts of law and thus Apple was awarded with over $ 1billion for the damages, this was later on reduced to just over

$450 billion as the jury was found to have committed an error in determining the damages.

In June 2011, Samsung alleged that iPhone4 and iPad2 violated patents of the Korean company. The International Trade Commission

happened to favor Samsung by imposing a ban on the sale of Apple phones in US jurisdiction. Just a week after Samsung sued Apple in

the ITC court, Apple filed a suit against Samsung citing several patent infringements on the hardware designs on the iPhone. Continuing

the battle, Apple filed another law suit in California district accusing Samsung of infringing on utility patents in Samsung‟s new

products. Samsung reverted back stating that “all generations” of iPhone & iPad infringe on its own patents. By this time the war had

already reached the peak, but, Apple kept on adding new Samsung products to the list as and when they were launched in the market.

Just as we see intense use of nuclear warheads and machine in the movie, in this tech giant‟s war we witness persuasive arguments

between lobbyists, policymakers, media, trade officials and government agencies. Although the giant machines, fireworks, flames VFX

effects in the smartphone war of Apple and Samsung is missing but the war between lawyers in multiple courts across the oceans and

both the giants claiming for settlement of multi-billion dollars for the damages look no different from an intense war scene from Pacific

Rim.

Redefining Apple & Samsung Patent Disputes in Hollywood

Movie, “Pacific Rim” Style

USPTO has recently granted a design patent in his name. This design patent is for an

ornamental building panel for a store

Apple & Samsung smartphone battle is the most popular patents

infringement tussles till date that has left no leaf unturned with respect to

smartphone aesthetics. Be it software or the hardware, both Apple and

Samsung have spilled law suits over each other worth multi billion dollars in

multiple regions and for multiple attributes.

The Samsung and Apple patent war in smartphone domain seems just like a

war between gigantic Karjus and Jaegars of Pacific Rim, who are fighting for

their pride, safeguarding their business and future interests so as to attain the



Currently no approved bio-similars of Herceptin are available in India though two Indian firms are working on its generic equivalents.

Time and again, western drug manufacturers in India have been accused of greedy pricing. As far as Herceptin is concerned, it has been

Roche‟s third-biggest seller notching global revenues of 3.08 billion Swiss francs just in the first half of 2013.

Amidst all these accusations, Roche decided not to pursue the patent and held the general intellectual property (IP) environment in

India accountable for their decision. However, Roche‟s Herceptin would remain on sale in India as its global patents expire in 2019.

Roche stated that India‟s patent laws are quite harsh compared to other countries as India attempts to make vital medications

affordable to its enormous poor population. This, probably, is also the biggest reason behind on-going intellectual property battles of

Western drug-makers in India.

More than a million women in India suffer from aggressive HE2+ breast cancer since this patent has been in force (from 2006) and less

than 10% of them were able to get access to Herceptin. Consequently India‟s Cancer Patients‟ Aid Association have challenged this

patent arguing that a drug whose single dose costs Rs. 6-8 lakhs is excessively priced for a country like India. Till now, Roche had not

disclosed its price for Trastuzumab in India, sold under the brand name Herceptin. Herceptin is an extremely efficient drug for the

treatment of breast cancer. It can be administered alone, along with chemotherapy and after surgery. It even helps to avoid surgery, in

many cases.

L I F E S C I E N C E S

Patent Granted for a “Death Test Device” to Two Lancaster University

Professors

“Death test device” can analyze tiny endothelial cells inside the ¬capillaries to determine the

aging pace of one’s body.

Two Physics professors at Lancaster University have come up with a revolutionary

invention. Aneta Stefanovska and Peter McClintock have patented a “death test device”

that can analyze tiny endothelial cells inside the ¬capillaries to determine the aging pace

of one‟s body.

The device, which is expected to be out in a wrist watch-style, will use a painless laser

beam to examine the cell functionality and estimate how long a person will live. The

estimation will be given grades from 0 to 100 (Grade 0 meaning death and 100 meaning

optimum function). The beam can also be used to test for diseases like cancer and

dementia.

They will also create a database where data of every person could be maintained and

used as reference against others to predict years left with someone before he will die.

The device is expected to be available to doctors within three years.

Roche not to pursue Indian patent for breast-cancer drug,

Herceptin

USPTO has recently granted a design patent in his name. This design patent is for

an ornamental building panel for a store

In earlier this year, Indian health ministry committee had urged the

Government of India to issue a “compulsory license” that would pave way

for a licensing agreement between Swiss drug-maker „Roche‟ and some

indigenous drug manufacturer of India and facilitate manufacturing of

cheaper generic version of its top-selling breast cancer drug, “Herceptin”.



Roche‟s generosity to give up the Herceptin patent is a welcome move. However, to solve the accessibility issue of such an important

life-saving drug, there is an urgent need of pro-active support of Government to the pharmaceutical sector to find the breakthrough bio-

equivalent of Herceptin.

A B O U T S A G A C I O U S

Sagacious Research is ISO Certified India based

Global Patent & IP advisory and analytic firm

offering cost effective & multi-lingual Patent

Searching, Patent Licensing Support, Patent Alerts &

Watches, Patent Drafting Support Services in over

100 countries and in over 16 Asian/European

languages.

An ISO 9001:2008 and ISO 27001:2005

Certified Company

70+ Techno-legal Experts | 16+ Languages |

100 Countries | 5, 000+ Projects | 100%

Returning Clients

C O N T A C T S A G A C I O U S R E S E A R C H

Germany Kathrin Reinhardt

+49 6107 6383 396

United Kingdom Aarti Thakral

+44 (0) 203287 5098

Rest of Europe Raphael Joseph +353 125 49910

Australia Steve Johnson

+61 3 9028 4017

United States 6387 Fairways Drive

Longmont, CO-80503 T: (303) 506-4192 F: (803) 831-1899

India (HQ) 303-B, Enkay Town Plaza, Block-I, Palam Vihar,

Gurgaon-122017, Delhi/NCR, India T: +91 124 4033431 F: +91 11 43850700

Web: [email protected] www.sagaciousresearch.com

Business

Sagacious research newsletter-23rd aug-2013