Patent, Press Releases

Dr. Amit Goel Recognized in IAM Strategy 300: The World’s Leading IP Strategists Annual Listing

Written by adminAugust 21, 2020

Dr.Amit Goel has been recognized in the IAM Strategy 300: World’s Leading IP Strategists 2020, an annual listing of individuals who lead the way in the development and implementation of world-class programs that maximize the value of intellectual property portfolios.

According to IAM Media, the strategists identified in this guide do not see issues from just one perspective; instead, they see value creation in the round. It is this 360-degree perspective, combined with a demonstrable ability to deliver, which makes them stand out from the crowd.

Dr.Amit Goel innovation and leadership in the area of patent analytics and IP business strategy development contributed to his nomination on this global listing of the IP elite. Congratulations, Dr.Amit Goel!

About the IAM Strategy 300 Nominations

(Source: IAM Media)

These world-class IP strategists are primarily identified through confidential nominations made online. However, the extensive research process also involves face-to-face and telephone interviews, as well as email exchanges, with senior members of the global IP community.

No individual can qualify for a listing in the IAM Strategy 300 unless he or she is nominated by at least three people from outside of his or her own organization. But even this does not guarantee inclusion; instead, only those individuals who further research shows to have exceptional skill sets, as well as profound insights into the development, creation and management of IP value, are featured in the IAM Strategy 300.

For this latest edition of the guide, IAM started the research process from scratch; so even those who had previously been listed had to meet the same selection criteria as those who are new to the guide this year. Once a person received the minimum three recommendations from outside his or her own organization, IAM undertook their own independent research to assess these claims.

Most nominees did not make it through the vetting process; those who did are listed in the following pages. The selection procedure is always strictly applied because our overarching aim is to ensure that only those individuals who possess exceptional skill sets – as well as profound insights into the development, creation and management of IP value – are featured in the IAM Strategy 300.

“We cannot promise that every IP strategist who deserves to be described as world class has made it into this publication. But we are certain that everyone who is listed deserves to be.”

About Dr.Amit Goel ( Co-Founder & Director, Effectual Services)

Amit has been handling client engagements with tech firms, law firms and universities, for providing patent prosecution, patent commercialization, patent litigation, and patent analytic services. He has expertise in patent litigation and patent enforcement and has played a key role in various multi-million patent lawsuits like Apple, Samsung etc.

Amit Goel has 18 years of international legal experience and holds a PhD degree in computer science with specialization in mobile communication and has published more than 30 research publications in International/National Journals/Conferences. His technical areas of expertise include wireless and mobile communication (WiFi, WiMAX, LTE), networking, internet technologies, software, mobile OS (Android, Apple iOS), and semiconductor. Moreover, he has been trained in patent laws (US, EP and India) from organizations like Microsoft, WIPO, IP Central, Lee & Hayes and US and EP Attorneys.

Amit is a researcher in the areas of Mobile Ad-hoc Networks (MANET), Wireless Communication, Networks, Databases, and Algorithms.

It is a delighted moment for Effectual Services and provides an outlook which is instrumental to the growth of the organization at international level.

https://www.iam-media.com/search?search=amit+goel&order=name_desc

https://www.iam-media.com/directories/strategy300/individuals

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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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F-Term Vs IPC/CPC For Japanese Patents

Written by adminJune 25, 2020

Explanation of F-Term Classifications

F-Term is a multidimensional classification system consists of a theme and multiple viewpoints. There are about 2,600 Themes which can be further divided to form 380,000 different classifications. The notation of F-term is shown below.

  • Theme code: represents a technical field
  • Viewpoint: analyses the theme (material, purpose, operation, manufacturing, etc.)
  • Figure: subdivides the viewpoint

    • Go to JPO

    Which Patent Classification System should we use to search Japanese patent?

    There are mainly two international patent classification systems that are IPC and CPC. There is another Classification system which could be usable for searching Japanese patents is F-Term. F-Term is a very complex Classification that is developed by Japanese patent office for only Jese patent. It has a very different structure then the other classification system (as shown above). So, there is a need of comparison between IPC/CPC and F-TERM classification system.

    Need of Classification based search for Japanese Patents?

    The Japanese patents are foreign language patent translated into English language. As a result the keyword based searching will
    not be a good way. Because there are a lot of jargons used which come due to translation. As, we know Patent classifications are language independent. Patent Classification automatically removes all the jargons.

    Comparison of IPC/CPC and F-Term Classification based searching of Japanese Patents

    To compare the IPC/CPC and F-Term based search. We have to take an examplary claim:
    1. A liquid immersion photolithography system comprising:

  • an exposure system that exposes a substrate with electromagnetic radiation and includes a projection optical system that focuses the electromagnetic radiation on the substrate;
  • a liquid supply system that provides liquid flow between the projection optical system and the substrate; and
  • a plurality of micronozzles arranged around a periphery of the projection optical system so as to provide a substantially uniform velocity distribution of the liquid flow between the substrate and the projection optical system.

    • To Search for the above invention disclosure:
    1. We have to extract relevant IPC/CPC and group them and search accordingly
    2. We have to extract relevant F-Term and group them and search accordingly

    1.Searching using IPC/CPC classification (for demonstration we also use keyword+classification based
    search to make it broader):

  • Number of results using on IPC/CPC classification: 307
  • Number of result using keyword+ IPC/CPC classification: 3992
  • Total no. of results: 4075

    • 2. Searching using F-Term classification:

  • Number of results using on F-Term classification: 360

    • Conclusion

    With above analysis it could be seen that there are almost 106 results out of 360 results which are not retrieved using IPC/CPC and IPC/CPC+keyword based search. So, it is necessary to use F-Term classification to search for Japanese patent.
    F-Term have more division (380,000 entries) means we can do more specific search. There are Multidimensional viewpoints for every theme. F-Term classifications are very well structured for Language independent search. So, The F-Term classification based search is very successful for Japanese patents.

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    Efficient use of search tools for prior art and patent searching

    Written by adminJune 19, 2020

    Potential applicants are recommended to carry out a prior art search to check whether their invention is novel. These searches can create stronger claim development, as well as verifying that the invention does not infringe another’s intellectual property, thereby avoiding any potentially expensive litigation further down the line.

    When performing a prior art search, patents are the main (and best) source for identifying patent documents (non-patent literature can also be useful). A patent database search will look for particular ideas and technologies by keyword, classification, date, inventor and assignee, among other things, and can be carried out on numerous free and paid databases.

    Free patent databases

    Since each country carries out the patent examination procedure before granting exclusivity rights to an invention, most have developed their own search portals in order to carry out an initial patentability examination and simplify the examination process.

    To further enhance the efficiency of these portals and keep up with the rapid pace of development, most countries have moved towards the amalgamation of machine learning and AI to organise patent documents (eg, into International Patent Classification (IPC) and/or Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) categories, along with other docketing processes based on technical divisions).

    The top free databases with research and analytics functions are provided by:

    • Google Patents;
    • the EPO;
    • the USPTO;
    • the Japan Patent Office;
    • the Korean Intellectual Property Office;
    • the Canadian Intellectual Property Office;
    • the China National IP Administration; and
    • IP Australia.

    Third-party databases

    There are several paid databases that operate on deep-learning AI and natural language processing, which provide a comprehensive guide to portfolio analysis, document comparison and high-performance searches across a large number of countries. These are equipped with machine translation to translate all non-English patents into English for easier understanding. The AI ​​behind these databases further enhances other important features, such as filtering and sorting the shifting of patented datasets. Another interesting function of these tools is the similarity search, which looks at phrases or paragraphs in the patent and showcases a list of similar patents based on the input.

    The formation of a query depends on the analyst’s know-how of the concept and its iterations. These searches are built with synonyms, proximity and Boolean operators and different types of classification (eg, IPC, CPC and US and F-terms) to obtain the exhaustive set of prior art documents related to the concept disclosed in the invention.

    The abovementioned features are common to most paid databases. However, the most appropriate and unique specifications of several paid third-party databases are listed below.

    Orbit, Questel

    This is a highly respected database to perform patent searching for prior-art searches and landscape analysis. It can access more than 54 million patent families, 100 million patents and 12 million design patents. It also provides worldwide patent coverage.It is possible to search for non-patent literature as it provides access to 108 million scientific publications, including books, research papers, journals and articles.Further,efficient resource sharing is available due to its sub-account feature. Here, multiple sub-accounts can be associated with a single primary account, which allows for the export of a shortlisted patent dataset to these sub-accounts for further analysis, while the primary account remains free for subsequent formation and running of search queries.

    Derwent Innovation, Clarivate

    This is an excellent tool for projects that require long and complex search queries, as it allows significant flexibility to a patent search process, especially in the life sciences and wireless sectors. Data intelligence provides a stunning graphical representation of the patent dataset for results interface based on assignees, inventors and legal states, among other things, which can come in handy in landscape projects. Further, it provides advanced filtering features such as forward and backward citations, legal status and INPADOC patent family searches.

    Patseer, Gridlogics

    For a service provider or an innovation-driven company, Patseer can function an optimum decentralised solution, as it allows the creation of a group where multiple members can work, customise and manage their project online.It can work as a boon in case of a landscape project, as different members can create an online taxonomy where they can add or remove patents in that category and can directly export the dataset or charts based on this later on. Sorting and filtering the relevant patents is much easier with this database, as it provides an outstanding dashboard for visualisation and analytics where it is possible to play with the results in multiple ways. There is also a filtering feature based on the number of occurrences of particular keywords used to search for a patent.

    Patsnap

    To be a unicorn in the field of ideas and technologies, you need to keep an eagle eye on competitors, which the insights feature of Patsnap helps to achieve. This is useful in identifying the patent value, top authorities, patent type and filing trends of any desired company.For an individual patent attorney or strategist, the most tedious task can be done with a single click by using the playbook list feature, which analyses patent value, litigation threat and litigation history, and simulates a merger and licensee locator. This databaseprovides a quick check on whether a patent has contributed to any standard.

    Comment

    R&D professionals and inventors need tools to efficiently analyse the disclosures closest to their innovation from a pool of ideas presented to them. Although free tools provide easy access to every individual, they also have drawbacks, which may affect the accuracy and efficiency of the search process and potentially risk the project. These holdbacks can be corrected by including features such as Word Intelligence to automatically highlight the synonyms of keywords used in the search strings, graphical and statistical analysis of datasets, and patent sorting and filtering based on the high relevancy order. It is hoped that some of these features will be included in subsequent updates to other patent databases.

    For further information contact:

    Nitesh Chaurasiya
    Effectual Knowledge Services Pvt Ltd
    View website

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    Articles, India, Intellectual Property, IP industry, Patent

    Patent law: Transforming the telecommunications industry

    Written by adminJune 15, 2020

    The telecommunications industry is perhaps the largest driving force behind almost all other industries that benefit from it – it is the epicenter for a variety of other industries that depend on it. Remember how online payments of electricity bills, and online bank transactions 10 years back have now moved to apps sitting in our smartphone. Today, a smartphone is anything but a cell phone used for calling – the users depend on smartphones for many other things such as – remote working, ordering groceries and entertainment. Off late, the mobile phone has also become a wallet for many – perhaps, the demonetization provided the necessary impetus!

    The largest and most widely used services by users currently are– video streaming, Internet of Things (IoT), and mobile payments. We took a deeper dive into each of these areas from a patenting activity standpoint and identified over 10,000 patent applications that are filed in India for these three technologies. Of these patent publications, almost 60% have been published in the past 5 years indicating an increased focus on innovation. The largest chunk of publications studied was accounted for by the mobile payments segment (~70% share) followed by the Video Streaming and IoT, roughly accounting for 15% each.

    Interesting trends emerge upon looking at the owners of these patents – the overall top assignees in the patent dataset studied are – Qualcomm, Samsung and MasterCard. Collectively, these three players account for roughly 12% patents studied, thereby indicating that many other players are active in these areas and there is no single player that holds sizeable chunks of IP for now.

    Digging deeper into the individual domains, the following trends emerge:

    Mobile payments:

    Top Players: Qualcomm, Mastercard and Alibaba group

    Only Indian company making it to the top 10 list in this domain was Tata Consultancy Services

    Video streaming:

    Top Players: Qualcomm, Sony, Philips

    IoT:

    Top Players: Samsung, Qualcomm, Lovely Professional University (LPU)

    Notably, Academia also seems to have active interest in pursuing patent filings in this domain

    The telecom value chain comprises of multiple segments – Device manufacturers, Infrastructure and platform vendors, Operators, etc. The patent activity from the operators seems to be on the lower side – our research was able to locate only 71 Indian patent publications from Reliance JioInfocomm, 32 from Vodafone and 7 from Bharti Airtel. The main reason for low patent activity may be due to the fact that these Operators put in very little or no research efforts, and they implement the technology developed by the Infrastructure and platform vendors.

    Undoubtedly, the next big phenomenon in the telecom industry will be the 5G revolution. According to a report from Qualcomm, 5G is predicted to have US$13.2 Trillion dollars of global economic output by the year 2035. Perhaps, the Infrastructure and platform vendors have realized this since long and have been amassing 5G related patents at a phenomenal rate. The following are the approximate counts of patent families (global data) declared as relating to the 5G standards:

    Huawei– 3000+ patents

    Ericsson – 1400+ patents

    Nokia – 2000+ patents

    Qualcomm – 1300+ patents

    Digging deeper, we also studied the likelihood of these patents entering into India eventually, and the following statistics emerge:

    Company Total patent families – All years Patent families filed in India – All years % Total patent families – published>2015 Patent families filed in India – published>2015 %
    Huawei 95,541 6,338 7 53,741 5,217 10
    Ericsson 54,211 8,323 15 19,700 3,844 20
    Nokia* 77,781 6,401 8 17,105 1,799 11
    Qualcomm 59,449 21,205 36 34,922 11,116 32

    (Source: research on a leading third-party patent database; *Alcatel Lucent data included)

    5G did not come into existence overnight, and the research has been going on for a while, but the most patents related to 5G were published after 2016, and we can see that the % of filing in India is on the rise by most companies actively pursuing 5G, noting an active interest in India.

    All in all, it can be safely concluded that patents have thus far played a big role in shaping Telecom industry, and are likely to play a more crucial role in the coming times, especially in the 5G licensing space – though it remains to be seen who, among the above giants, wins the race to the 5G patent dominance.

    Patent law: Transforming the telecommunications industry Article by Amit Aggarwal Co-Founder and Director of Effectual Services.https://www.dqindia.com/patent-law-transforming-telecommunications-industry/

    Article was 1st published On Dataquest India

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    The strengths and weaknesses of third-party patent databases

    Written by adminMay 22, 2020

    The Daniel Keys Moran quote “You can have data without information, but you cannot have information without data” is the perfect apothegm on the significance of data. There are many databases compiling data from a variety of sources and collated in a way that users can access, interpret, search and use the information.

    For the IP industry, third-party databases possess a great deal of information including patent and non-patent literature in the form of suitable descriptions and classifications. Several patent databases provide access to patent analysis with their unique capabilities. Most patent databases include a tremendous number of documents grouped by millions of inventions with millions of images from more than 100 patent authorities. A third-party patent database is a primary pillar to conducting most IP-related tasks, including assessing patentability or freedom to operate, detecting and managing infringement risk, and analysing the competitive landscape. Such databases are in particularly high demand among researchers, companies and KPOs thanks to their quick access to data analytics.

    Patent databases such as PatBase and Derwent Innovation offer global patent data in English or national/regional languages from more than 60 patent authorities. These databases are amenable to extensive searching by text, classification, assignee or inventor names, and dates. Further, these databases can provide access to enhanced titles, abstracts and citation data, such as those provided by the Derwent World Patents Index™ (DWPI) and the Derwent Patents Citation Index™. Other useful features include the conversion of non-English text into English, the clustering of patent documents under patent families, legal status information on patents, maximised coverage of data and timely updates. Along with paid databases, many patent offices (eg, the USPTO) also offer various online searching tools to identify patent documents in their repository.

    Databases without robust searching capability have no value; thus, database providers should offer extensive searching capabilities with a user-friendly interface to search the requisite data from various angles. An ideal database will offer to build more complex and powerful queries to find patent documents based on keywords, classes, citations and legal status. Databases should also provide advanced features such as semantic and corporate tree searching.

    Aside from searching capability, other factors that are also considered when selecting the appropriate database for performing a particular task include subscription cost, maintenance service, upgrades, data download limits and response time. No single database is customised for all desired results; therefore, there are dedicated databases available for specific purposes. For example, searching design patents is different from keyword-based searching of utility patent documents; thus, databases offering searches of design patents may be desirable for only some users. Such databases work on Locarno Classification, US design or other design classification-based indexing. The databases are developed for the unique nature of data (eg, the MARPAT database for searching Markush patents through the STN platform and the USGENE database for searching genetic sequences disclosed in US patent documents). Manual analysis by technical experts is also accommodated in some databases. Scopus provides the manual categorisation of published articles and Derwent offers manually written technical summaries, abstracts and titles of patents. This combination of human and machine work makes analysis easier for users and thereby creates a more cost-effective and time-efficient process.

    Several platforms are also designed to access multiple databases through one window. For example, STN provides integrated access to the most current and complete collection of global disclosed patent and non-patent, scientific and technical content. Such a platform offers access to databases belonging to various organisations (eg, chemistry content from the Chemical Abstracts Service and patent content from the DWPI).

    Aside from paid database services, a few free databases are also available to search patent and non-patent documents. Google Patents is a worldwide database that is easy to navigate, readily available and free to use, and which provides a full-text translated patent search engine for patents from various countries, including the United States, Europe and Australia. The search is performed by employing variables such as search terms, date, assignee and inventor, and offers similar patent searches as well. Google Patents also enables the user to isolate the figures of a search result if they wish to focus on the figures of various patents. The patent search interface is available in multiple languages, including Chinese, English and French, with full text searching in English, French and German. Patent Cooperation Treaty applications can be accessed in Chinese, English, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Russian and Spanish. Interestingly, the free-to-use database Patent Lens offers remarkable features that enable users to explore more than 80 million DNA and protein sequences disclosed in patent documents. Some other free-to-use databases that are highly regarded by users across the globe are those of the USPTO, Espacenet and PatentScope.

    Many companies have begun to offer a variety of dashboards in order to provide easy and digestible data visualisation, data interpretation and other data analytics that require minimal or no manual effort for searching and analysis. Dashboard-facilitating services can offer prior art search reports and landscape clustering based on AI or machine learning. Some of these dashboards offer citation maps providing detailed visualisations of cited patents, an accurate view of patent strength in a given domain, the relationships between inventions by organisations worldwide in order to locate whitespace, and monitoring services. For example, Derwent Innovation claims to support patent prosecution filings as well as patent monetisation and licensing. PatSeer claims to have the unique capability of multi-dimensional analysis using informative charts, custom fields, hierarchical categorisation, citation and family trees, co-citation analysis and much more. These services can help researchers and companies to gauge an idea of the scope of a domain or invention in a short time frame.

    Third-party patent databases are useful tools for analysing patent and non-patent literature. In this competitive age, several organisations are offering unique services to target multiple problems. However, these databases still require significant changes to increase their desirability. Database interfaces can be improved to prepare automatic searching and clustering of patent or non-patent data in order to derive meaningful insights. In this way, they would meet the demand for foolproof automation, which would in turn provide opportunities to create various verticals in the IP industry.

    For further information contact:

    Satish Kumar
    Effectual Knowledge Services Pvt Ltd
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    Importance and Benefits of Artificial intelligence for Patent Searching

    Written by adminMay 22, 2020

    Every year with the growth in new technologies and inventions there have been an astounding growth in volume of intellectual property literature. Internationally, this data has to be gathered, stored, and classified in multiple formats and languages so that it can be used as and when required. However, data alone does not create a competitive advantage, extracting significant and actionable information from this data deluge represents a major challenge and an opportunity at the same time. Analysing patent documents from the pile of data manually is getting out of question day by day as it demands extensive time and resources. So, the examiners and patent analyst need all available tools at their disposal to perform this tedious task. One of the tools with a tremendous potential is Artificial Intelligence (AI). At its core, artificial intelligence is a computer that has been programmed to mimic the natural intelligence of human beings by learning, reasoning and making decisions.

    From the days of fully constructed Boolean searches, search and analytics have evolved, thanks to AI-based semantic search algorithms to provide more efficient and accurate search result than ever before. A major advantage of artificial intelligence is its ability to provide repeated results as these systems are not hindered by inexperience or fatigue. Artificial intelligence tools have potential to significantly streamline and automate the patent search process and the increase the quality and speed of theobtaining results by reducing the amount of time examiners and analyst spend researching, for example,a prior art research project that can runs into days and weeks, can be performed by an AI tool in a matter of hours. Some existing tools, that are really advanced, also incorporate natural language based input that permitsa searcher to include natural language terms that can be comprehended by the backend artificial intelligence engine, which recovers comparable documents available in different languages.

    The European Patent Office (EPO) uses Intelligent machine translation tool “Patent Translate” to allow for translation of patent publications from 32 languages into the EPO official languages of English, French and German. The US patent office (USPTO)uses artificial intelligence to help examiners to review pending patent applications by augmenting classification and searches – currently a high priority – with it. The UK patent office (UKIPO) also uses artificial intelligence solutions for prior art searching. IBM is offering Watson, an IP advisor that leverages artificial intelligence for fast patent ingestion, better insights, and analytics. Turbopatent, a company that develops applications to automate and streamline the patent protection process, has introduced two artificial intelligence products for patent lawyers. Roboreview, a cloud-based product that analyses drafted patent applications and rapid response, a product that assists lawyers in writing responses to office actions.

    Many key players in the industry like PatSeer, Questel, have been using artificial intelligence in combination with machine learning & semantic-based algorithms to provide patent analytics tools and software.With the help of these tools and software we can now:

    • Search prior art and analyse from a large number of patent families in multiple languages
    • Analyse citations, search for assignees, inventors and perform design searches directly
    • Tracing patent office actions or payment of maintenance fees
    • Removing un-patentable inventions up front, maintaining and parsing patent portfolios and reducing the patent sample space to search from available pile.

    There are some opposing views relating to the implementation and benefit of artificial intelligence tools and techniques – there are people who are concerned about the peculiarities of language used within patent documents, and doubt that how these tools can deal with the inherent ambiguities i.e.its lack of human reasoning as it is unable to carry out a ‘sanity check’ of results or inventions and lacks the experience that leads to a person’s intuitive response to situations.There have been some recorded incidents where the AI based tools failed to perform what it was intended to do.

    All in all, it’s difficult to say whether the AI based tools will be able to completely mimic the human beings and perform same level of analysis or whether they will only reach to the extent of an “additional help” to a patent searcher – we will see in coming times.

    Importance and Benefits of Artificial intelligence for Patent Searching By Amit Aggarwal, Co-founder and Director, Effectual Services

    1st published On Express Computer (The Indian Express Pvt. Ltd)

     

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    Blog, Hi Tech Patent Litigation, India, Intellectual Property, IP industry, IP Litigation, Patent

    Patent filing for technology: Transforming smartphone industry in 2020

    Written by adminMay 21, 2020

    Apple introduced the first smartphone in 2007, and since then, peoples’ daily lives have changed dramatically. The difference in the capability of the original iPhone and the iPhone 11 is massive. The first iPhone had just 128 megabytes of RAM, a processor with a clock speed of 412 MHz, and a maximum storage capacity of 16 gigabytes. When the iPhone was introduced, its specifications were very impressive. A lot has changed since. Fast forward to today when low-end smartphones costing less than 5K rupees have specifications that far exceed those of the first iPhone.

    What has led to advances in smartphones?

    Behind Advances in Smartphones

    A smartphone today doubles as TV, wallet, GPS, music player, video game console, camera and much more. The huge leaps the smartphone has undergone have been possible because of a robust patent granting system that protects the inventions of phone manufacturers. Because of the payoffs from earning patents, manufacturers have considerable incentives to acquire patents. As a direct result of patents being awarded, the hardware inside smartphones now becomes obsolete within just five to six months. When smartphones were introduced, their hardware didn’t become obsolete for as long as two years.

    The patent regime has made it possible to build a more powerful smartphone every few months. Leading manufacturers are pitted in a constant battle to create smartphones that consumers will fall in love with. Competition between major manufacturers had led to the creation of smartphones that are sleek, fast, and have potent cameras. The growth of social media has paralleled advances in smartphone cameras. People love phones with great cameras because they can be used to click great photos and share them quickly

    Need for a Strong Patent Portfolio

    For smartphone manufacturers to thrive, they need to build a strong patent portfolio. If a smartphone manufacturer has a strong patent portfolio, it has a good chance of making phones that are well received.

    There is another advantage to having a strong patent portfolio. Phone manufacturers that have a valuable patent can license the technology to other smartphone manufacturers. By licensing patents, smartphone manufactures can earn revenues. This is precisely what Samsung has done. Samsung has patented technology that makes possible cameras with astoundingly high megapixel counts. The technology can be used to create mobile phone cameras that have a megapixel count as high as 108 to 150 megapixels.

    Patents Responsible for Growth of Smartphone Industry

    Despite the obvious benefits of patents, there is a widely held belief that granting patents to phone manufacturers stifles innovation. Nothing could be further from the truth. The incentive to earn patents drives manufacturers to develop innovative new technologies that can be used to make better smartphones. Without the ability to protect their inventions from being copied, no smartphone manufacturer would have an incentive to innovate. Consequently, the extraordinarily powerful smartphones consumers love wouldn’t exist. If the patent regime were dismantled, the smartphone industry would rapidly stagnate.

    Smartphone manufacturers need to maintain an active patent portfolio because it serves as an effective defence strategy during smartphone wars which could reignite any moment.

    Artificial Intelligence’s Impact on India’s Intellectual Property System

    AI is disrupting virtually every industry. AI is still in its infancy, yet its versatility and promise are well appreciated. It is being used in healthcare to spot potentially cancerous cells, in chatbots to serve customers, in finance to recognise market patterns no human can discover and in a host of other industries.

    AI can be used to spot inventions that merit a patent. Because patents safeguard designs from being used by entities that don’t have a copyright or license, they have been behind the success of all industries over the past two centuries. Today many industries are being transformed by AI. Hence, when AI is used to grant patents; it comes full circle because it helps award patents which in-turn leads to the expansion and creation of industry. Such industries then adopt AI to deliver better products and services.

    India’s PTO issued tenders inviting companies to help create an AI and blockchain-powered database. When the database is successfully implemented, the patent granting process will become swifter and less prone to mistakes. AI and blockchain will help evaluate the uniqueness of every invention and judge whether they merit a patent.

    There is only one foreseeable disadvantage behind using an AI and blockchain-powered database to grant patents. Large data centres consume enormous power. They also take up considerable space. Should the PTO be willing to face these challenges, there is every reason to believe that by using AI and blockchain, it will be able to grant more patents in a comparatively short period.

    Patent filing for technology: Transforming smartphone industry in 2020 By Amit Aggarwal, Co-founder and Director, Effectual Services
    https://www.dqindia.com/patent-filing-technology-transforming-smartphone-industry-2020/Article was 1st published On Dataquest_India

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