US Patent Reform made easy - What's in it for you!

Introduction:

This article is for the people who are in the technological world and their profession either involve patents or affected by patents and intellectual property. This article is a time saving guide and provide prospective of the recently passed Leahy-Smith America Invents Act 2011. 

" Yes! we can"

On Sept 8, 2011 the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act bill passed by both houses of the U.S. Congress and finally Mr. Obama signs it today (16th Sept,2011) to make it as a part of US patent Law.  

This is the fourth attempt to introduce significant changes in U.S. patent law, and closely resembles previously proposed legislation in the Senate in its previous session (S. 515, see the Patent Reform Act of 2009). In this bill the most significant aspect is the transition from a "first to invent" to a "first to file" system. It has been referred as the first significant change to the U.S. patent system since 1952. 

What is US Patent reforms Act?

Patent law reform, as with other law reforms, is the process of examining existing laws, and advocating and implementing changes in a legal system, usually with the aim of enhancing justice or efficiency.

Why so much Noise recently?

1. This reform is a landmark in American patent history as it shifts from first to invent to first to file. This harmonizes with the rest of the world. The apprehension is that changing the tenet that put the United States as the topmost innovative nation in the world might not be to its advantage.

2. Fees diversion: There is still a lot of noise on this issue, the fees that innovators pay is diverted by the government into other channels and is 

looked upon as a tax on innovation.

3. It took long to overhaul the patent law and Finally its happened!

What are key provisions on this reform? How it will affect the patent laws in US? What does it entail?

1. First-to-file system
2. limits on patent marking ”trolls
3. Post-grant review
4. Courts have made it harder to get a patent invalidated by alleging that someone misled the patent office
5. The bar is now higher for what is patentable.

Following Map outlines most important provisions of the US Patent reform act. 

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US Patent Reform - Simplified

How it may affect the industry?

According to USPTO, the cost of proving who was first to invent, under the current system, is an average of $400,000 to $500,000 in legal fees to engage in interference proceedings. Those costs can double if a case is appealed. By contrast, under the legislation, a $110 provisional application will establish effective rights to an invention, securing first-inventor-to-file status with no risk of subsequent disputes. The USPTO believes that the near- and long-term effects of certainty, predictability and reduced costs of the first-inventor-to-file system will benefit all stakeholders, both small and large entities, regardless of the area of technology.



Concluding Remarks

Law will take it course, this common one liner fits well with this reform act as well. "Yin" and "Yang" discussions around this reform has started happening but How it will change patent world is yet to be seen. All we can do is to start accepting this as a way of life and start working towards incorporating it in practice. Lets all hope for the best for invention, inventor, and industry!

By: Dr. Sarasija Padmanabhan & Govind Kedia

Please feel free to share insights, thoughts, and additional information on this subject.
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The article has been jointly written with Dr. Sarasija Padmanabhan, who is registered patent agent at Indian Patent office. Please note that the information by no means is complete and may need further research. Writers are not responsible for any error in the presented data . This article does not represents writers' employer position on the subject .
Please do not copy/reproduce mind-map for commercial use without permission. Its against copyright Law! 

Is you daily newspaper informing you about what's happening in the Patent world? - Coverage of patent related issues in Indian News media

Analysis of frequency, coverage trend, coverage topic of patent related stories in past 1.5 years in Indian News Media.

Building the Base:

It was same lazy morning with sleepy eyes on 31st August with newspaper in my one hand and toothbrush in the other. The reaction after seeing the newspaper was the same “same old political crap, what the hell!” but then as I unfolded the paper, I saw a rather unusual head line on the lower part of front page, a headline “Pollution board chief cashed in on own patent”. Well it was surprising to see patent angle in wide spread corruption in the country. After reading the article, I asked myself, Is Indian media catching up with western media and giving importance to patents and Intellectual property?


Setting the Stage

I thought let me check this out by analyzing news publication of the premier of Indian media sources. So, I decided to utilize Google News and its advanced feature to copy all the articles which mentioned “patent” in the text of the article from January 1, 2010 till date 6 Sept, 2011.

I copied the results from Google for each news source and dumped into an Excel spreadsheet. After cleaning the data it was easy to find useful insights. If anyone wants to take a look at the collated data, please follow this link to DOWNLOAD the spreadsheet. 

Lifting the Weight
I have considered following source for collating the news articles.

· Reuters India
· Deccan Herald
· Economic Times
· Hindustan Times
· Times of India
· InformationWeek
· The Hindu
· Livemint (The Mint)
· IBNLive.com
· NDTV.com
· Business Standard
· Financial Express
· Indian Express
I am sure you will find your favorite newspaper! If not, then maybe you can decide to switch to any of these after seeing the results.

Here are some fascinating statistics & analysis based on the collected data: 

Reuters, may be due to its Global nature covered more stories on patents or stories involving any patent angle. Leading Indian daily newspaper such as Deccan, Times of India, Economic Times, and Hindustan Times were almost at a same level.

In my view, it is still less! Our Media should cover this area more proactively.

Now the next intriguing question was, if this trend varied during the past 1.5 years. For that, the publication dates were normalized by Quarter. Here is the outcome of that:

It was comforting to see that Indian Media has started taking the issue seriously. The moving average trend lines of various sources are in the upward direction. 

Yes! our media is waking up to the IP issues.


Now you will ask what they are actually covering, to do that I used a widely known Text tool Wordle to create a word map. This analysis is based on the titles of the news item retrieved above. Please note that the larger the text the more they appeared in the title of the news.

Looks like we are being informed on important developments by our responsible media!

And Finally.....:

Let’s see, what we can conclude here:

1. Indian Print and Online media has started taking Patent issues seriously.
2. International issues and news form headline and covered by most of the Indian Press. 
3. The inclination towards patent related news has increased in past quarter and it may rise further. 
4. Apple, Google, Microsoft, Samsung and Motorola were top international companies covered by Indian media 
5. Ranbaxy and Dr. Reddy’s, Glennmark were top Indian companies who were quoted in different sources. 
6. Important international patent disputes such as Android, HTC-Microsoft, and Apple-Samsung got their due place in News.

I hope you have found the article interesting. That’s why you are here!
Please feel free to write back to me via email or post your comments on the blog.
Please do not think of suing me if you think I made any error. I disclaim any liability which may occur due to any error in presented data. Also, this article is entirely represents my personal opinion. This is not a official or associate with my employer.

An era of great CEOs has come to an end……for the whole corporate industry

Steve Jobs------------iResign

Steve Jobs arguably the most successful and most dynamic CEO in the corporate history, on August 24, 2011, hung up his shoes as the CEO of Apple Inc. The man who turned Apple into one of the world's most powerful companies stepped down as CEO. Steve Jobs, a great leader, a motivator, an inventor, a designer, all in all a Genius, is the person behind the innovation of iPhone, iPad, and other magical devices, which make Apple Inc. unique. The person who thinks greatness lies in simplicity.

He has not only revolutionized the computer and the smartphone industry but also inspired his competitors to think out of the box. Jobs is an inventor of 313 patents. Of these, he is the lead inventor of 33. Majority of his patents are design patents. Steve has always followed the philosophy of integrating technology with Arts and Humanities for creating digital gadgets. On Jobs' resignation, the WSJ’s principal technology columnist, Walter S. Mossberg very rightly said “Most people are lucky if they can change the world in one important way, but Jobs, in multiple stages of his business career, changed global technology and media in multiple ways on multiple occasions. Jobs, the man with incredible vision and the extraordinary talent, zeal and drive."

Despite, bitter rivalry between Apple and Google in the recent years, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt could not refrain himself from praising Steve Jobs. Eric said in a statement that Jobs “is the most successful CEO in the U.S. of the last 25 years.” He added that Jobs “uniquely combined an artist’s touch and an engineer’s vision to build an extraordinary company, one of the greatest American leaders in history.” Leaders like Steve are born once in a century.

But, after Jobs resignation, Tim Cook the COO of Apple has taken over as CEO of Apple. We all know that Tim Cook is widely regarded as Operational Genius, the person who has been greatly inspired by Jobs and under the able leadership of Jobs has got some part of his DNA.

Still the biggest question looming over Apple and its investors is whether Tim will be able to provide the face for Global brand and identity just like Jobs. Because Jobs has become synonymous to Apple and Apple to Jobs, will Tim be able to create his own fan club as Jobs did? The falling of Apple’s share price by 5.4 % on the day Jobs announced his stepping down is a good enough indicator to show the sentiments of people attached with the great man. Will Tim have the same vision and holistic approach as Jobs? Whenever Tim will launch a new innovative product, he must ask himself “Have I made it large”.

We all know Jobs drove innovation at Apple. Will his departure cause a change in the company's strategy, direction and alter its mentality and mindset? Will this event provide the opportunity to Apple’s competitors they were looking for? These are the questions which still needs to be answered and only time will tell. It will be interesting to witness how Cook starts to put his stamp on the company. But, having said that it’s Jobs himself who has passed the torch to the man he trusted the most, Tim. Tim must always remember what Steve once said to a Stanford graduating class in 2005 “Stay hungry, stay foolish”.

Cook addressed the Apple team as CEO in the email saying

"Team:

I am looking forward to the amazing opportunity of serving as CEO of the most innovative company in the world. Joining Apple was the best decision I’ve ever made and it’s been the privilege of a lifetime to work for Apple and Steve for over 13 years. I share Steve’s optimism for Apple’s bright future.

Steve has been an incredible leader and mentor to me, as well as to the entire executive team and our amazing employees. We are really looking forward to Steve’s ongoing guidance and inspiration as our Chairman.

I want you to be confident that Apple is not going to change. I cherish and celebrate Apple’s unique principles and values. Steve built a company and culture that is unlike any other in the world and we are going to stay true to that—it is in our DNA. We are going to continue to make the best products in the world that delight our customers and make our employees incredibly proud of what they do.

I love Apple and I am looking forward to diving into my new role. All of the incredible support from the Board, the executive team and many of you has been inspiring. I am confident our best years lie ahead of us and that together we will continue to make Apple the magical place that it is.

Tim"

I hope that under the leadership of Tim and Jobs still as the Chairman of the Board, the Apple continues to innovate and create new dimensions in the field of technology. Let us all be thankful to Steve Jobs for his unparalleled contributions to technology. Steve Jobs has sowed the seeds of innovation and creativity that we'll see in years ahead. I think Jobs is right in saying: Apple's best days lie ahead.

Curious Case of USPTO data

We assume USPTO bibliographic data to be reliable, but in the case below, there is an ambiguity in Inventor between USPTO patft and USPTO assignment.

I have encountered many instances where assignments data is dubious. For critical information projects one must be very careful in relying on such data.

Publication number - US6525513

Snapshot from Assignment Data

Snapshot from PatFT

USPTO has done commendable job in providing data in usable format. However, analysts must be careful in blindly relying on the data provided by USPTO and other database sources.

No matter how sophisticated analytics system become, there is and will be no replacement of human intelligence.

Arriving at the Rubrics of the Indian Pharmaceutical Patent Rejections

This article briefly explorers recent pharma patent rejections from Indian Patent office. It tries to calibrate information focusing on rejections from the Indian patent office to arrive at a matrix which can serve as a reference tool for pharmaceutical patent prosecution. It outlines the available information to understand the coordinates based on which pharma patents are rejected from the Indian patent office.

Following table lists recently reported cases:

Please download complete list (Link) with other field of information such as :
Application Number, Date filed, Date of decision, and Basis of Rejection

It seems that majority of the rejections can be related to the sections 2(1)j,3b, 3d and 3e of the Indian patent law. Also, that any application that jeopardizes the position of a generic drug in India would face opposition.

However, the case of Tasigna(Nilotinib) from Novartis (237430 3003/CHENP/2004) was granted despite of all the features of rejected application. This seems to be an exception and it would be interesting to see its prosecution history. A article on (Link) relates to this story.

Does this data show that the Indian patent office is trying to balance ‘Indian Health and Welfare’ and patentability standards?
Is it only the commercially successful drugs that are opposed, rejected or revoked?
Do these stringent patentability standards raise the quality of patents/innovation?


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This information is provided by Dr. Sarasija Padmanabhan (Profile) who is registered patent agent at Indian Patent office. She is the lead writer of this report. Please note that the information by no means is complete and needs to be updated regularly. Writers are not responsible for any error in the presented data . This article does not represents writers' employer position on the subject .