Acne Market Overview, Industry News, Intellectual Property, IP industry

Acne – Treatment and Market Overview

Written by adminSeptember 14, 2020

Acne vulgaris, commonly known as acne is a chronic inflammatory disease. The inflamed elevations (papules, pustules, nodules, and cysts), comedones (blackheads and whiteheads), and scars are symptoms that normally appeared on the skin because of acne. The statistics have disclosed 80 percent of people suffer from acne between the onset of puberty and 30 years of age. There is no exception to children and adults being affected. 60 million Americans are annually affected, reported by the American Academy of Dermatology.

From the last three decades, Topical retinoids are dominating the first-line therapy. There are some other topical agents including Benzoyl peroxide, Azelaic acid, and some antibiotics, which can be given in combination. Other systemic therapies are also available for the treatment of severe-moderate acne, wherein isotretinoin, hormonal therapy, and oral antibiotics. The products are based on the four mechanisms to fight against the acne: reducing sebum production, preventing follicular blockage, decreasing the proliferation, and overcome the inflammation. Strategical development programs in the domain of acne vulgaris are as following:

  1. Overall 64 programs at different stages of clinical development have been globally identified in the acne pipeline. It illustrates the development of the acne vulgaris pipeline.
  2. Acne Vulgaris Pipeline by Molecule Type – there are the majority of the small molecules, which are the asset of the acne pipeline, some of which are either generics or repositioned from other indications. The line- up of the therapy type according to percent is small molecules, peptides, and biologicals working against more severe form of acne.
  3. Promising Drugs in Clinical Development – there are some examples such as Topical Minocycline, Olumacostat Glasaretil showing a great potential to carry out the revolution in the future of acne treatment.

The acne treatments hold major share in the dermatology OTC product market. Increasingly, various prescribed acne treatments are becoming qualified as OTC products due to their history of long-term safety and efficacy. Products such as Benzoyl peroxide, Salicylic acid, and their combinations are heading into the OCT market worldwide.

Various surveys reveal that 90 percent of the world population suffers from acne disease at some point in their life, therefore the world market has a great demand of acne therapies. The prevalence of acne vulgaris graph went up throughout 2006 to 2016 at the 10 percent growth rate. Interestingly, acne stepped to 8th position of global disease market list. The market size of dermatology therapeutics is expected to grow rapidly from USD 19.8 billion in 2016 to USD 41.2 billion in 2026 at the rate of 8 percent.

World Health Organization (WHO) has also mentioned that skin infection is commonly found in a developing country like India. The lack of infrastructure and dermatologists for treating skin related diseases can be a reason for the growing demand for skin care products. The Indian market is expected to expand further due to advancements in healthcare services, the entry of biologic medicines, and improvement and increased access to healthcare insurance. Indian market is emerging as one of the tops in line with the global market trend dominated by topical products for the treatment of acne vulgaris.

The global OTC dermatology products market has been constantly growing and is expected to reach at CAGR of 3.2 percent by 2026.  OTC dermatology consists of anti-bacterial, acne treatments, anti-fungal, disinfectants, and similar others. The OCT dermatology market is led by companies like Johnson and Johnson, Merck, Pfizer, Procter & Gamble Company. Galderma, a subsidiary of Nestle and specializing in R&D and marketing of dermatological solutions, has got grip on treatment of huge number of acne patients. As per the market size, the US market experienced an increase in CAGR of 10.5 percent in 2016, which was about 49 percent of the global market, and will continue to be climbing the ladder by 2026. On the other hand, it is estimated that the US market growth rate is slightly better in comparison with global. European region including EU5 markets (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and United Kingdom) portray more than double growth in 2026 compared to 2016 market worth.

Apart from the OTC market, patented acne treatment is also flourishing. The patent landscape supports the growing market with a great number of patent filing. Interestingly, patent filing in the domain of acne is higher in India and Great Britain in comparison to Japan. The key patent assignees are Allergan (also known as Actavis), Dow Chemical (DowDuPont), GlaxoSmithKline, and Sun Pharma.

To conclude, global acne market is expanding at fast pace and has opened doors for companies from various industries, like pharmaceutical, cosmetics, medical software application, medical devices. Advancements in the biotechnology and herbal/ chemical area can boost the product portfolio in the acne field. It is observed that various small sized companies or startups are entering in the acne domain with variety of innovative products across the globe.

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BIOFUEL – SIGNIFICANCE AND MARKET OVERVIEW

Written by adminSeptember 7, 2020

Biological material is an alternate to produce renewable energy called Biofuel. Biofuel offers a possible alternative to petroleum-based fuels or fossil fuels. The explosive and healthy growth in the biofuel market has constantly been catching eyes over the past decade.  The main goal to embrace biofuel is to break the rusty chain of environmental pollution and importing oil adding to the county’s economy, subsequently, it will lend an eager hand in replacing the dependency of nonrenewable resources, mitigating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and patronizing economic development. Biofuel is playing a significant role in sectors like aviation, navy or maritime transportation, etc. which is leading to expansion in consumer demand. A glimpse of biofuel advancement is started from corn starch, sugarcane, rapeseed, soy, etc. as a first generation biofuel, and followed by non-lignocellulose feedstock as second generation biofuel. Feedstock such as Jatropha oil (third-generation biofuel) and genetically modified microorganism (fourth-generation biofuel) are trigger point in cutting edge technology for increasing the biofuel production. Overall, the third and fourth generation biofuel technology will unlock an opportunity to bring forth a large-scale production potential across the globe.  The article will be witnessing the curve of market outlook and forecast, Jurisdictions ladder, competitive landscape in the biofuel market.

The global biofuel market spike has been predicted to jump up at an approx. rate of 2.24 percent over 10 years between the years from 2016 to 2026. Accordingly, an estimation to touch USD 11.59 trillion by the year 2026 owing to the hint of how it will be rapidly growing. Feedstock like coarse grain and vegetable oils are expected to be highly used in biofuel production. The global consumption of biofuel reached about 153.4 billion per liter in 2016, further it has been projected to increase modestly by the period of 2026, which might be around 173.5 billion per liter at the growth rate of 1.2 percent. Factors strengthening biofuel market are:

  • Biomass-based fuels for transportation has a great potential to cut down on emissions produced by vehicles
  • Price is lower than any other nonrenewable resources
  • Sustainability in biofuels as their various uses or applications have increased for the past years as a way to increase energy self-sufficiency
  • Reducing net trade costs, biofuels is getting a grip on several industrial sectors.

The eye-catching healthy rapid growth has become the strategic focus for many business firms for gaining profits over the past decade. It can be noticed the concrete proof of a drastic increase in the biofuel market in terms of its use in aviation, marine transport domains.

Sustainable fuel mostly drives the demand for bioenergy in the transportation domain across the world. It has been studied that biofuel consumption in most of the countries will be interlinked to local or domestic demand. Additionally, in regards to Biofuels Renewable Energy Directive, the policy framework in the European Union has already mentioned that the consumption of renewable energy including non-liquids would jump up to 10 percent of total transport fuel consumption in 2020 on an energy equivalent basis. Also, as per Fuel Quality Directive, fuel producers would require to reduce the greenhouse gases (GHG) intensity of transport fuels.

Europe is continuously holding the top position in biofuel production, while on the flick side, the US is capitalizing on a great deal of raw material availability and playing a dominant inning in the market. The two countries – US and Brazil are the key ethanol suppliers. Brazil is emerging as the main producer of biofuel energy followed by Argentina and Indonesia showing prominent growth. The policies in all these countries influence the biofuel production patterns.

In the European market, biodiesel rules the fuel segment. The biodiesel is certainly preferred over ethanol, diesel and petrol due to the existing energy taxation policy, which brings about a heavy dependence on biofuel indicating around 70 percent of its transport fuel market. Therefore, biodiesel accounts for 80 percent whereas ethanol stands at 20 percent of the biofuel market. Europe, the leading producer of biodiesel, is constantly tightening the grip on the biofuel market among the key players like Brazil, the US, Argentina, and Indonesia. In the current year 2020, European biodiesel production has been expected to have a substantial rise in production.

The leading US biofuel market is expected to be growing at a rate of 4.6 percent and will reach around USD 7336 billion by the end of the year 2026. The industry analysis reports portrayed a different picture, it is speculated that the US market might not come to amply fulfill the biofuel requirement, and the compliance gap could stand out till the year 2030. The US lays great emphasis on the EISA (The Energy Independence and Security Act) Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) policy. The policy aims to boost the required volumes of renewable fuel being used in vehicles.

Major key players like GEVO, POET, DuPont, Neste, and Bluefire are producing biofuel to fulfill the global demand of fuel. Australia based Algae Tec company cultivates algae for the production of biofuel, for which the company is using marginal land or industrialized locations. Furthermore, it is more productive as oil and hydrocarbons per landmass than any other terrestrial crop. The US based company Butamax Advanced Biofuels has invented bio-isobutanol production technology with reduced production cost in order to provide a high-value drop-in biofuel for transportation fuel supply.

Recent patent filing trends support the market growth of biofuel, wherein patent filing originating from European countries take first place across the globe, followed by US. Also, it has been noticed that innovation is more focused on genetic development for enhanced biofuel production through using different microbial strains. Apart from the genetic development, other secondary areas of innovation cover enzymatic hydrolysis process, waste to biofuel, etc.

In conclusion, it seems biofuel is emerging area that will lead automotive and renewable energy sector. Biotechnological advancement, waste management, strict environmental regulation for gas emission, high demand of electric vehicle, rise in patent activity are the key driving factors that will support the biofuel market to tremendously grow in near future.

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AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRIES, Blog, Industry News, Intellectual Property, IP industry, Tips

HIGH EFFICIENCY FUEL CELLS FOR AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRIES

Written by adminSeptember 4, 2020

Emission from the transport sector has major contribution to climate change. It forms about 15% of annual emissions which also includes non-CO2 gases as well. 72% of the global transmission come from road vehicles. The top 10 countries with largest transportation emissions in 2014 were: United States, China, Russia, India, Brazil, Japan, Canada, Germany, Mexico and Iran. These countries in conjugation form 53% of the global transport emissions in 2014. Therefore, an eco-friendlier energy is required for the transport sector.

Electric vehicles i.e. vehicles which use electric motors or traction motors for propulsion. They provide a better substitute for petrol/diesel vehicles. An electric vehicle can be powered through various self-contained power collectors like battery, solar panels, fuel cells or an electric generator as well. Fuel cells have greatest energy density as compared to others. According to U.S. Department of Energy’s February 2019 report, the number of fuel cell vehicles on the road in America grew to 6,500 from 4,000 in 2015.

A fuel cell is an electrochemical cell that converts the chemical energy of a fuel (often hydrogen) and an oxidizing agent (often oxygen) into electricity through a pair of redox reactions. There are various fuel cell combinations which have high energy density like: Silicon-air, aluminium-air and other metal-air fuel cells. Since, fuel cells have large energy density, higher charge can be stored and can be used for variety of applications from large scale to small scale which is also evident from the patents landscape application areas as shown in figure. Such as:

  • Stationary fuel cells can be used for primary and backup power generation in commercial and residential uses.
  • Fuel cell electric vehicle have high efficiency between 42-59% with only 10% degradation. A fuel cell that runs on hydrogen produced natural gas could use about 40% less energy and emit 45% less greenhouse gasses than an internal combustion vehicle. The scope can be extended to buses, trains, boats, submarines, airplanes etc.
  • Portable fuel systems can be made with micro fuel cells primarily for phones and laptops.

Additionally, due to the fact that hydrogen fuel cells emit only water and heat, they emit less pollutants as compared to combustion engines. Due to lesser moving parts, less heat is generated and a quieter engine operation is obtained.

Since 1932, GE has been adding to the development of fuel cell. General motors developed Chevrolet Electrovan in 1966, which was first fuel cell road vehicle. Advancements in Fuel cells have come a long way. The first commercially produced hydrogen fuel cell automobile, the Hyundai Tucson FCEV, was introduced in 2013, Toyota Mirai followed in 2015 and then Honda entered the market.

Strengthened by the beliefs of the growth in this field. The application area has been extended to Submarines, Aircrafts, Ships and buses.

  • “HY4” is the hydrogen fuel cell powered passenger aircraft which was launched in 2016.
  • “Forze VII” is a student made racing vehicle made in 2016, which competes against petrol powered cars with a LMP3.
  • “Energy Observer” is a first of its own kind. It can generate and be powered by hydrogen. It was launched in April 2017 for a world tour lasting 6 years in order to optimize its technologies.

What future landscape holds?

A significant surge in total in number of patents filed can be seen in above mentioned graph. Also, it is clearly visible that Toyota has been a major player in the formation of the today’s landscape of Fuel cells, whereas GM has lost its roots.

Toyota and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced plans for a hydrogen fuel-cell lunar rover – Toyota lunar Cruiser. Toyota said the rover would be able to operate on the moon for up to six weeks, with a range of 1,000 kilometres (about 621 miles) per tank of hydrogen. Solar panels will provide supplementary electricity.

NYK Line, Toshiba Energy Systems & Solutions Corporation, Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd., Nippon Kaiji Kyokai (ClassNK), and ENEOS Corporation will develop an about 150-ton class (passenger capacity approximately 100) high-power FC vessel that will function as a medium-sized tourist ship.

Toyota & Honda have partnered on fuel cell bus mobile power generation venture to supply electricity in disasters. It can be used to supply power during disaster such as typhoons and rainstorms. When a power grid is damaged people suffer from an interruption in the supply of power to their homes and evacuation centres this bus will provide electricity in an affected area.

For Further Information: –

Author: Hitesh Dhiman

Effectual Knowledge Services Pvt Ltd.

View website

Email : hitesh.dhiman@effectualservices.in

Tel: +44 207 993 8632

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INDIA 500 MOST PROMISING INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LEADER AWARD 2020 winner of the year

Written by adminSeptember 4, 2020

Amit Goel Takes India 500 Most Promising Intellectual Property Leader 2020 Award

3rd September 2020, Noida- Amit Goel is a Leader Award winner in the 2020 India 500 Most Promising Intellectual Property Leader Award competition for Quality Excellence.

Amit Goel has an overall experience of 18+ years in IP industry and is co-founder and director of Effectual Services. Effectual Services is ranked 14th on Deloitte Technology Fast 50 India list and 124th on Deloitte Technology Fast 500 APAC and also been awarded Red Herring Asia Award. In 2018, Effectual Services has received “IP Excellence in India” award during the Questal Orbit event. And in the year 2019, we have been certified as the “Best Place to Work” by Business Side.

Amit Goel said,” I am really honored to receive this award and would like thank India 5000 for this recognition. I am really grateful to my team for their constant support and commitment towards the success of Effectual Services”.

Additional firm information

Effectual Services is a leading Intellectual Property (IP) management advisory firm offering IP support solutions to Fortune 500 companies, law firms, research institutes and universities, and venture capital firm’s/PE firms. Established in 2010, Effectual Services has its office in New York and San Francisco Bay area in the US, London in UK, Stuttgart in Germany, Noida (NCR), Mohali in India, Shanghai in China and Singapore. We offer IP consultancy to companies across the globe who are looking for support in Patents, Trademarks etc. In last ten years, we have grown to around 180+ analysts globally and have presence in India, and US.

Information about India 5000

India 500 Most Promising Intellectual Property Leader category is an elite category for those companies that are into Intellectual Property services. It is recognition for those organizations that help creative minds achieve rights over their creative invention/discovery.

India 5000 Business Awards, part of Benchmark Trust is a research group TQV Certification Services as the knowledge & Audit partner, established 2016, evolved through a necessity to recognize and celebrate quality excellence. This India 5000 Business Awards brand stands apart by offering a platform to companies and individuals all over India in its award ceremony and chooses to invest their time & skill for the opportunity and to be recognized as an India 5000 Business Award winner.

The awards selection process follows a research methodology based entries and nominations. The final winner procedure is done considering quality parameters and guidelines from the jury board which comprises of eminent personalities from various industrialists, knowledge partner (TQV) and other audit partners. The winner list is then published on winner page of https://india5000.com/.

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Artificial Intelligence, Blog, Industry News, Intellectual Property, IP industry

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN MEDICAL IMAGING

Written by adminAugust 31, 2020

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a branch of science that simulates human intelligence in computer like machines that are programmed to think like humans and exhibit traits like learning and problem-solving. AI uses different digital inputs to gather multiple arrays of data. The data is then processed by AI analytical models for fast and effective output of information with human-like intelligence. Data processing is usually executed with the assistance of two sophisticated technological subsets of AI, which are Deep Learning and Machine Learning that help the machines to constantly learn and develop its knowledge.

With the advent of AI, the collective output of machines has greatly improved. Some of the most primitive and tedious machine based functions are largely simplified with the use of complex programming algorithms used in AI. Currently, AI has impacted almost every industry sector. In the past few years, the Healthcare sector has also seen a gradual upsurge in the adoption of AI based technology for the different healthcare divisions. AI healthcare is broadly employed for segments like patient care, drug discovery, and personalized treatment. Medical imaging has emerged as one of the most potential healthcare segment with a major technological AI upgradation. This upgradation has proved effectiveness in improving the quality of internal imaging using various radiological imaging techniques such as X-ray radiography, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), medical ultrasonography or ultrasound, computed tomography (CT), and nuclear medicine functional imaging techniques like positron emission tomography (PET). Integration of AI with such imaging techniques can facilitate reviewing of an image and identify potential findings within it by searching a patient’s history or other parameters related to the particular anatomy scanned.

 

AI in the healthcare sector has not only improved the accuracy of disease detection but has also reduced the treatment time. The potential of AI in improving medical imaging lies in:

  1. Improved Automation: The work flow can be synchronized, i.e., the individual radiological instruments can be collectively regulated.
  2. Better image interpretation: Well taught machines can analyze minute details more effectively.
  3. Effective diagnosis: AI can predict about the diseases more accurately. Studies show high competence of AI in predicting early stages of cancer.
  4. Help doctors: AI can represent only the relevant parts in brief. This helps the doctor conclude quickly.

Some really interesting case studies where AI was employed to improve the diagnostic efficacy through medical imaging are as follows:

  1. Harvard Medical School’s deep learning system can diagnose breast cancer with an accuracy of 97 percent compared to 96 percent of a radiologist. Aided by the diagnostic system, the radiologist’s accuracy improved to 99 percent.
  2. McMaster University’s deep learning system detects Alzheimer’s disease with an accuracy of 98 percent to 99 percent by using magnetic resonance images, compared to 84 percent accuracy of previous computer vision algorithms.

The case studies above are indicative towards a collective approach, where AI can assist the radiologists to increase the value they provide. This is usually done by training the AI system to recognize normal anatomy through typical scans from CT, MRI, ultrasound or nuclear imaging. The AI algorithms used in machine automation help the machines to read medical images by identifying patterns within the image the way radiologists do. Patent trend analysis of the AI in medical imaging field highlights patent filing growth in the field, wherein companies (Philips, Siemens, Smith & Nephew) originating from USA has been top patent filers in the domain. Other countries like India, Germany, Great Britain are also active in the domain. It has been observed that the companies are filing patents in collaboration with academic institutions, like Yale University and British Columbia University.

The market for diagnostic imaging equipment and devices is relatively mature. The market is controlled by four global conglomerates with a combined market share of 80 percent in diagnostic imaging: GE Healthcare, Siemens, Philips, and Toshiba. These four companies dominate the market in the field of Radiological Information System and Picture Archiving and Communication System (RIS/PACS), and Advanced Visualization (AV). Toshiba is endeavoring to expand to the PACS/image analytics market through collaborations with other companies. The AV market remains highly fragmented, with a large number of small companies competing in niche markets. AI is consistently improving both (RIS/PACS and AV) the approach and general access to reliable and accurate medical image analysis, with help from digital image processing, combined with pattern recognition and machine learning AI platforms. For example, a start-up called Butterfly Network has developed a handheld 3D-ultrasound tool that creates 3D images of the medical image in real time and sends the data to a cloud service, which then identifies image characteristics and automates a diagnosis. This kind of clinical support from AI is expected to have a significant impact on the overall medical imaging diagnosis market and its growth. In further instance, Arterys developed an AI algorithm using MR images to draw up the contours of the heart’s four chambers, measuring precisely how much blood they move with each contraction. Cardiologists usually need 30 to 60 minutes to calculate the volume of blood transported with each pump, but Arterys’ AI comes up with the answer within seconds.

The implementation of AI technology into the healthcare sector has following challenges:

  1. a) Availability of Structured and Standardized Data: The lack of sufficient quantities of high quality structured and standardized data, as the data in the healthcare industry comes from different sources such as electronic medical records, laboratory and imaging systems, physician notes, and health-insurance claims.
  2. b) Eating Away Jobs: As Artificial Intelligence gains deeper access to work and personal life, it demonstrates that the biggest threat to mankind is the replacement of humans with machines.
  3. c) Patient Hesitation: There is a degree of patient pushback against being “forced” to engage with a “machine,” whether the AI system assists with patient engagement/communication or provides high-level clinical related services.
  4. d) Data security: Security and data privacy is also a significant challenge for Artificial Intelligence. e) The structures of the human body present great variation in terms of normal dimensions and textures, and this variation potentially masks pathological conditions.

The current business strategy among many large companies in diagnostic imaging is to leverage licensing agreements and work collaboratively with technology suppliers, rather than to acquire these companies outright. In order to make up for the lack of commercial funding available from traditional venture capital resources for imaging technology, most of the key imaging OEM’s have established corporate venture funds. For example, Siemens Venture Capital Healthcare, Philips Healthcare Incubator, and the GE Healthymagination Fund.

An important trend in diagnostic medical imaging is a growing interest in fusion and multimodality imaging. As the market for diagnostic imaging equipment matures, new opportunities are emerging for imaging modalities that can be used by mobile doctors or health-care workers in the field. Another major trend is the idea of smaller, portable imaging machineries. The global medical imaging market is facing increasing competition from refurbished systems due to the high cost of devices and installation in developing markets. IBM/Merge, Philips, Agfa, and Siemens have already started incorporating AI into their medical imaging software systems.

The growth of the global Healthcare AI market is directly correlated with the existing economic conditions and health status (e.g. COVID-19 pandemic situation) across the globe. The rising level of disposable income has propelled the spending trends on healthcare. In addition, the improving global economy is expected to take a step further in the years ahead and catalyze the growth of AI in healthcare industry. Increased global investment in the healthcare sector has facilitated AI based developments world-wide. AI has emerged as a potential alternative to the traditional healthcare sector by improving and standardizing the primitive technologies. It is believed that the advent of AI in medical sciences has revolutionized its basis by inculcating a cooperative and synchronized association between machines and doctors.

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IP consultancies mushroom in Mohali, Chandigarh

Written by adminJuly 31, 2020

The influx of research institutes, universities, manufacturing and IT companies in Chandigarh, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh has become a cynosure of Intellectual Property (IP) consultancy firms. There are over a dozen firms in public and private sector besides individual consultants in Chandigarh and Mohali which cater to businesses and technical institutions in their innovation, patents, trademarks and IP valuation.

Some of the companies engaged in offering IP-related services include TT Consultants, Signicent LLP, GreyB, Logicapt and PatentsKart. The latest to launch operations in Mohali is Noida-based Effectual Services. It plans to hire over 50 people in immediate future to provide IP solution to Fortune 500 companies, law firms, research institutes, universities, and venture capital and PE firms.

Amit Aggarwal, co-founder and Director, Effectual Services, said “Mohali was a sensible choice for us to serve our clients better. Opening a second office in India was a step in our business growth strategy to cater to the increasing demand.”

According to experts, low operating cost and the presence of research institutions in the region are the two main factors which are attracting IP consultancy firms here.

“We have a pharma cluster in Baddi, number of research institutes and universities such as National Agri-Food Biotechnology Institute, Mohali, Centre of Innovative and Applied Bio-processing, Institute of Microbial Technology, IIT-Ropar, Chitkara University and Chandigarh University among others. There is an ample scope for IP-related services here,” said Harit Mohan, CEO, Signicent LLP (Mohali).

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India, Industry News, Intellectual Property, IP industry, Patent, Press Releases

पंजाब के मोहाली में इफेक्चुअल सर्विसेज ने नया ऑफिस खोलने की घोषणा की

Written by adminJuly 31, 2020

एक प्रमुख इंटेलेक्चुअल प्रॉपर्टी मैनेजमेंट एडवाइजरी फर्म, इफेक्चुअल सर्विसेज, ने भारत में अपनी मौजूदगी को और दमदार बनाने और बिजनेस और कंपनी का दायरा फैलाने की योजना बनाई है। इफेक्चुअल सर्विसेज ने मोहाली में नया ऑफिस खोलने की घोषणा की है। मोहाली स्थित ऑफिस में 100 से ज्यादा कर्मचारियों की भर्ती की जाएगी। 2019 में कंपनी ने अपने कॉरपोरेट ऑफिस का विस्तार किया था, 200 से ज्यादा कर्मचारियों की भर्ती की थी और नई जगह से अपने कारोबारी कामकाज का संचालन शुरू किया था।

कंपनी की रणनीति के साथ तालमेल से और पंजाब में कंपनी का दायरा फैलाने के लिए इफेक्चुअल सर्विसेज ने निकट भविष्य में 50 से ज्यादा कर्मचारियों की भर्ती की योजना बनाई है। इन कर्मचारियों की भर्ती कंपनी की ओर से अलग-अलग सेवाओं को प्रदान करने के लिए की जाएंगी। इफेक्चुअल सर्विसेज फॉर्च्यून 500 से जुड़ी कंपनियों, लॉ फर्म, रिसर्च इंस्टिट्यूट, यूनिवर्सिटीज, वेंचर कैपिटल और पीई फर्मों को आईपी सपोर्ट सोल्यूशन प्रदान कर रही है।

इफेक्चुअल सर्विसेज ग्लोबल मार्केट के साथ घरेलू मार्केट में दिन दूनी रात चौगुनी प्रगति कर रही है और तेजी से आगे बढ़ रही है। मोहाली में अलग-अलग क्षेत्रों में काम कर रही इफेक्चुअल सर्विस की विशेषज्ञों की टीम कंपनी के दुनिया भर के साथ ही घरेलू स्तर पर विस्तार करने में योगदान देगी। संगठन का उद्देश्य सभी तरह की विशेषज्ञ सलाह, आंतरिक मंथन और गुणवत्ता से कंपनी की सक्षमता बढ़ाना है। आज के दौर में क्लाइंट्स इसी की सबसे ज्यादा मांग कर रहे हैं और वे इसके हकदार भी हैं। मोहाली में इफेक्चुअल सर्विसेज अपने कर्मचारियों की संख्या अगले 2 साल में 25 फीसदी से ज्यादा बढ़ाएगी।

निकट भविष्य में कंपनी के कई अन्य कार्यालय और सेंटर खोले जाएंगे। इफेक्चुअल सर्विसेज तकनीकी रूप से आधुनिकीकरण और बेहतरीन रणनीति के लिए जाने वाले कई क्षेत्रों में अपनी कंपनी का दायरा बढ़ाने की योजना बना रही है। कंपनी वर्टिकल एक्सपेंशन (ऊर्ध्वाकार विस्तार) पर भी फोकस करते हुए कच्चा माल विभिन्न कंपनियों को भेजेंगी, जो उसे तैयार माल के रूप में असेंबल कर आगे उसकी बिक्री करेंगे। इस तरह कंपनी व्यापार के नए क्षेत्रों में निवेश करेगी, जो कंपनी की जैविक, राजस्व संबंधी और कारोबारी विकास के लिए बेहद लाभदायक होगा।

इफेक्चुअल सर्विसेज के सहसंस्थापक और निदेशक अमित अग्रवाल ने अपने नए ऑफिस के बारे में बताते हुए कहा, “हम पंजाब में अपनी कंपनी का विस्तार कर बेहद उत्साहित हैं। यह हमारे लिए उस क्षेत्र में कंपनी की लॉन्चिंग शानदार मौका है, जहां से हमें प्रतिभाशाली कर्मचारी मिल सकते हैं और जो हमारे बिजनेस के लिए बेहद प्रासंगिक है। मोहाली का चुनाव हमारे और हमारे क्लाइंट्स के लिए काफी सोच-समझकर किया गया था, जिससे विभिन्न कंपनियों को विशेषज्ञ राय प्रदान की जा सके और उनकी बेहतर ढंग से सेवा कर सकें। कंपनी का मुख्य लक्ष्य अपने मौजूदा क्लाइंट्स को समय से सर्विस और सपोर्ट मुहैया कराना है। कारोबार को बढ़ावा देने की रणनीति के तहत उपभोक्ताओं की बढ़ती हुई मांग को पूरा करने और नए प्रतिभाशाली कर्मचारियों को कंपनी में भर्ती करने के लिए भारत में दूसरे ऑफिस का खोलना एक तर्कपूर्ण कदम है। हम लगातार क्रिएटिव, बेहतरीन और प्रतिभा और स्किल में निपुण कर्मचारियों को कंपनी में भर्ती करने का काम लगातार जारी रखेंगे। इससे हमें कंपनी के बड़े लक्ष्यों को पूरा करने में मदद मिलेगी।“

उन्होंने कहा, “मोहाली में नया ऑफिस खोलने से हमें अपने नए क्लाइंट्स को शानदार सर्विस देने के लिए नया प्लेटफॉर्म मिल गया है।“

इफेक्चुअल सर्विसेज के बारे में

इफेक्चुअल सर्विसेज इंटेलेक्चुअल प्रॉपर्टी मैनेजमेंट एडवाइजरी फर्म है। यह फर्म फॉर्च्यून 500 से जुड़ी कंपनियों, लॉ फर्म, रिसर्च इंस्टिट्यूट, यूनिवर्सिटीज, वेंचर कैपिटल और पीई फर्मों को आईपी सपोर्ट सोल्यूशन ऑफर कर रही हैं। कंपनी के पास अलग-अलग क्षेत्रों के विशेषज्ञों की टीम है, जिनके पास अलग-अलग जटिल पेटेंट असाइनमेंट्स को हैंडल करने का शानदार अनुभव है। इसमें ऑल्टरनेटिव एनर्जी, ऑटोमोटिव और एयरोस्पेस, बायोमेडिकल, बायोटेक्नोलॉजी और फार्मास्युटिकल्स, केमिकल और मटीरियल्स, इंफॉर्मेशन टेक्नोलॉजी, इलेक्ट्रानिक्स और कंप्यूटर, लाइफ साइंसेज, टेलीकम्युनिकेशन और दूसरे क्षेत्र शामिल हैं। कंपनी इंटेलेक्चुअल प्रॉपर्टी सपोर्ट सर्विसेज (आईपीएसएस) भी प्रदान करती हैं। कंपनी पेटेंट टर्म एडजस्टमेंट प्रक्रिया के दौरान प्रूफ रीडिंग, किसी गुड्स या पैकेज पर लेबल लगाकर या उसके दस्तावेजों को मार्क करने की प्रक्रिया और इंफॉर्मेशन डिस्क्लोजर स्टेटमेंट की सुविधा भी प्रदान कर रही है।

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The growing role and potential implications of AI on patents

Written by adminJuly 29, 2020

As artificial intelligence systems start to co-author patents, how they are treated as part of the organization is going to be a challenge for companies using them for patents.

AI is without doubt the latest buzzword in town. Although it’s not as recent a phenomenon as one thinks, it has definitely penetrated our lives in the recent years more than ever. Be it Google assistant, Amazon’s Alexa, or Apple’s Siri – all of them are powered by a backend AI engine, which is ever learning and ever improving.

Although, AI is penetrating every field now, pharma was one of the earliest adopters of the technology utilizing the AI engines in drug discovery, diagnosis of disease. In 2017, the researchers at Stanford university trained an AI engine using 129,450 clinical images, and then tested its performance against 21 certified dermatologists in identifying Skin diseases. The AI was proven to be as efficient as human dermatologists in recognizing skin cancer. When it comes to patents and AI, there are several issues as discussed in following paragraphs.
Patentability of AI based inventions
As much as it is complex in nature, and ever learning, and ever improving, AI is a software, and software patentability has been frowned upon by law across the globe. In Europe, Article 52 of the European Patent Convention clearly states that “The following in particular shall not be regarded as inventions: schemes, rules and methods for performing mental acts, playing games or doing business, and programs for computers”.

Similarly, the Indian Patent act in Section 3(k) also states the computer programs as not being patentable per se. Although, the law seems to be united against the patenting the AI, but there have been workarounds for patenting the software, for example, in India, the software patents have been allowed in case they are tied up with a hardware, for example, the computer processor on which the software executes, so AI related inventions will not likely be very different.

AI as an Inventor

Perhaps, the most interesting issue in the patenting industry is of the AI being a named inventor of the algorithms it develops. DABUS (“Device for the Autonomous Bootstrapping of Unified Sentience”) is an AI system developed by Dr. Stephen Thaler, which was also named as an inventor in two patent applications on the technology that was developed by the AI. The patent applications, with DABUS as inventor, were filed in US, UK and European Patent Office.

All the three patent offices rejected the patent applications that named DABUS as inventor. The key grounds for rejecting the patent applications were that the laws, as written, envision a natural person to be an inventor and not an AI.

Clearly, there’s a gap in the current legislations which the law makers across the globe need to ponder over and address in case AI systems were to become inventors.

But things do not stop there, in case an AI invented something, who owns the technology and the intellectual property generated thereby?Most of the organizations own the intellectual property generated by the employees, as they are working for the organization for emoluments. Is it safe to consider that DABUS, was working under the supervision of Dr. Stephen and his organization, therefore, the intellectual property belongs to the organization? That would that make DABUS an employee of the organization, giving the AI legal rights.AI being an ever learning system, what if DABUS further evolves and says no?

AI assisted patent intelligence

AI has impacted many industries, and Patents is no different. The major benefit of the AI would be to make the process more efficient and faster across all levels – the patent searching, patent examination and grant process, and even patent licensing. The patents data is very structured across the globe – there is a defined way to draft a patent, there are defined sections in patents that contain specific information.

If AI systems can help consume unstructured data and observe trends from it, absorbing patents data to identify patterns will be a relatively easy task for an AI engine. AI is already integrated in may patent searching tools today, and are making the searching process more and more efficient.

For the same search query, a search engine backed by AI results in less false positive results.AI based translation engines are making more and more patents accessible to public by translating patents to English. The Indian Patent Office is also interested in leveraging the AI based engines to make the patent granting process more efficient.

Conclusion

From the standpoint of patents, the AI is still in the nascent stage and we are yet to witness the full extent of the benefits it can provide. There is no denying that the AI systems will prove to be tremendously beneficial to everyone by making the process more efficient and faster. Also, the legislation across the globe seems to be the lagging behind, as most of the patent laws today were written in an era when AI was just a science fiction, which will need to be updated to match the recent phenomenon.

The author is Vice President, Effectual Services- Advisory firm that offers IP support solutions

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The Role of Intellectual Property Rights in Technology Innovation

Written by adminJuly 28, 2020

Intellectual Property (IP) is a term which refers to intangible creations that arise from human intellect. There are many types of IP recognized by law, and each type provides some form of protection to a person who has made the creation. The basic idea behind various types of IP is to provide an incentive to the owners to disclose the idea to public, so that others can further develop the technology, and therefore, it leads to an overall growth of science and technology. As logical as this may be, it has been criticized by many – people who follow an opposing school of thought propose that IP rights serve as a tool to provide monopoly to large corporations, and it’s difficult for smaller players to invest in R&D as much as bigger companies, eventually, strict implementations of IP laws kill the innovation and thus it defeats the sole purpose. Let’s examine this with help of history –

The Indian Pharma sector –

The Indian Patent Act was enacted in 1970, at that time, the lawmakers did not allow protection to pharmaceutical products (i.e. medicines) under the act, but only afforded protection to “methods” of making pharmaceutical products. This allowed the Indian pharma industry to reverse engineer the drugs made by international companies, and manufacture them using alternate methods, i.e. they could make same API (Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient) using different methods. Needless to say, that the exercise of researching an API is more capital intensive, than researching for an alternate method to produce the same API – and thus, came the rise of Indian generic drugs.

Looking back, it seems like the lawmakers might have done this intentionally, to preserve and promote the domestic pharma industry, as they knew that the domestic pharma industry probably did not have the necessary means to innovate back then. The result – India became the world’s largest provider of generic drugs, and we primarily became “imitators”and not “creators”.

The laws have since then been amended multiple to be TRIPS compliant, and since year 2005, India allows patenting of Pharma products. The industry reacted to this positively and domestic firms, since then and even prior to that, have slowly been investing more money into their R&D programs or have formed alliances to tap into these opportunities. Back then, when the patent law was enacted, the Indian pharma companies might not have been very capable of innovating and competing against international pharma giants, but today, we have companies like Biocon and Dr. Reddy’s – who rely heavily on R&D and have filed numerous patents across the globe, and are already competing against international pharma giants.

The Chinese example –

China is without doubt the manufacturing base of the globe, and Chinese products are synonyms for counterfeit for many. However, like India, Chinese patent laws are evolving and are moving towards a stricter IPR regimen – a brief review of the history of IP laws in China reveals this fact. Chinese patents act was enacted back in 1984 and thereafter, there have been three main amendments – the 1992 amendment, the 2000 amendment and the 2008 amendment. The 1992 amendment was made in accordance with “Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of the United States and the Government of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Intellectual Property.”. The 2000 amendment was made in anticipation of China becoming a member of World Trade Organization (WTO). Both these amendments aimed to create a stricter IP regime, which was more in compliance with the developed countries across the globe. However, the 2008 amendment, which was also directed to creating a stricter IPR regimen and to promote patent filings, was purely voluntary and was done without any external pressure.

The result – China overtook US in 2011 in terms of patent filing, which was the leading country in patent filings till then. Since then, the China patent filings have remained more than double of US (Source: WIPO IP Statistics Data Center).

By encouraging the patent filings, and imposing a stricter IP regime, China aims to move from being a manufacturing hub to more of a research hub. It is not surprising to note Huawei among the top companies conducting active research and filing patents in 5G space.

The case of Robert Kearns –

Innovation not only stems from R&D labs of big companies but also from companies that start from a garage –key examples being companies like Apple and individuals like Robert Kearns. Robert Kearns was an inventor made famous by his patent war against automobile companies in US during 1978-1992. He was an inventor of intermittent windshield wiper, which was useful in light rain or mist, and held a patent for the technology. He tried to license his technology to General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler but each rejected his proposal. Even though the proposal was rejected, Ford and Chrysler went on to implement his technology in the cars they manufactured. Thus ensued the most interesting patent infringement cases that ran years, and finally the courts decided in favor of Robert, and the auto giants had to pay damages to Robert.

Conclusion –

From the standpoint of IP, the countries across the globe can be divided into two broad segments – Developed & Innovating and Developing & Imitating. The Developed and Innovating have well defined and well understood IP laws that impose a stricter IP regimen, which leads to innovation. Then comes the second segment – of which countries like India and China are a part, which are gradually moving to an ever stricter IP regimen, albeit with some temporary intentional delays recorded in India.

Stricter IP laws do seem to have a positive impact on driving innovation, at least in a longer run, and in the countries in which the industry has potential, and is capable of innovation. It seems that the hypothesis – “strict implementations of IP laws kill the innovation” might not be correct after all, and is more focused in short sighted goals. In fact, if it were not for a solid IPR regimen, it become easier for bigger companies to steal the idea from a genuine individual inventor – as we see from the case of Robert Kearns.

It is safe to assume that India does have a lot of potential of innovation, and with initiatives like “Make in India” every industry in India will react to become more and more innovating, and eventually, the legislation and the courts will enforce a stricter IP regimen in India as well.

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Blockchain- Transforming And Revolutionising Intellectual Property Rights in India

Written by adminJuly 17, 2020

“The ultimate aim of making the innovational sphere a fair playfield to nurture as well as promote innovation, depends solely on the amount on reliability as well as transparency we can offer. The introduction of the Blockchain to the supply chain is the catalyst we need to achieve all of that.”

The spark towards the information revolution kindled by Blockchain is the modern-day counter-part of what steam engine and other technologies did for the industrial revolution back then. The distributed ledger introduced to the world back in 2008, is pushing the boundaries of the digitised world by revolutionising every industry from Fintech to real estate and has the potential of bringing another radical transformation due for the mankind since the advent of Internet. The biggest uncertainty regarding the digital ledger paying back to the IPR industry for the protection it has offered to the notion since its conception is no longer followed by a question mark, as PTOs all over the world are exploring the different applications of the immutability, reliability, transparency and security offered by Blockchain to the various aspects of the life cycle of IP rights.

Blockchain: Applications in IP

The first and foremost application of the technology in the domain takes the form of a “Smart register” for maintaining an online registry of IP assets and registering patents, trademarks etc. to put an end on the slowpoke and money sinkhole disputes surrounding the ownership of IP assets. Another application lies in tracking the forgery of protected goods by mounting a Blockchain base tag to track the entire lifecycle of goods. Further, in the PTOs, the technology can redefine the working of every stage from filing-to-grant of the application by minimizing the human effort required and can hence reduce the time-to-grant for the applications, something, the inventors and PTOs have collectively wished for throughout the years.

Blockchain in IP: The Indian Landscape

Protection of the assets and IPR rights has always been a worrisome area in India and has even obstructed or atleast impeded the foreign investments in certain sectors. For the same reason, the Central Government has been keenly working on strengthening the IPR regime in the country and the recent steps by the government, like expediting time-to-grant, promoting IPR in the educational sector, increasing the number of examiners etc. have all been in the same direction. But the greatest step towards the notion can be seen in the form of the recent tender issued by the IPO exploring the use of AI and Blockchain to form the platform “IndiaChain”. It is expected to be the world’s largest blockchain implementation program in governance.

The IPO aims to revolutionise the IP process via the infrastructure by using the hash-based technology to improve the experience for inventors as well as examiners. By streamlining the registration process via Blockchain, the IPO purports to be able to foretell the timelines for the inventors regarding the different actions of the office as well as rectify the disparities surrounding the first to file rule among the applicants.

Conclusion

Despite the concerns surrounding the enormous task of inter-connecting IP registries and the massive power requirements of a Blockchain-based infrastructure, IPO has laid down the foundation stone for the amalgamation of the technology into the IP ecosystem. If the prophecy regarding the technology being even more beneficial to the innovational sphere than the finance domain, turns out to be true, we might see IPO moving towards more advanced uses of the technology like ledger management, a supervisory authority for tracking the use of IP assets in the market and their commercialization for investors via a bidding system; providing a central and government-backed market place for innovators to catch the eyes of the tech-titans etc. and many other potential applications bringing the revolution promised by the ledger to the table.

 

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