From papers to patents.....

What it means to Industries, Universities,

Individuals

Criteria for patentability

How to migrate to patents?

Assessment of SSN's research areas

On the Advantages of a Patent Facilitation Centre

 Aspects of a Property

Register with a higher authority who can grant exclusive right for you
Right to use
Preventing others from unlawful occupation

For obtaining the right,One has to

define the boundaries of the property and give details.
register in someone's name as owner and
then on an annual basis keep paying levies and taxes.

As long as we use, we also have to keep a watch on whether others are

encroaching our space. If misused by others, we can go to court.

Having got a property , we

either sell it at a higher value
or build a house and occupy it
or rent it out.

A property has to return money – Otherwise, it is useless.

If a property cannot return money , better not to buy.
 Aspects of Intellectual Property
Register with a higher authority who can grant exclusive right for you
Right to use
Preventing others from unlawful copying

For obtaining the right, inventor has to

define the claims of the invention and give details of process.
register in someone's name as Assignee and then
on an annual basis keep paying charges.

As long as we use, we also have to keep a watch on whether others are

encroaching our space. (Infringement). If misused by others, we can go to court.

Having got a patent , we

either sell it at a higher value
or manufacture the product and sell
or license the idea for others to make and sell..

An Intellectual property has to return money – Otherwise, it is an expense.

If an idea cannot return money , better not to patent it at all.
 Types of IPR
(Intellectual Property Rights)

Working Mechanism – PATENT

Shape - DESIGN
Name - TRADE MARK
Manual - COPY RIGHT
The way we write ssn is a Design.
It is also a trademark!
what if someone starts an SSN Travels.. he is misusing
the goodwill of the SSN symbol. Unless our SSN is
registered as trademark, we can't stop him!

Next few slides... let us discuss about patents only..

 Industries and patents
Patents are always associated with profits
Innovative companies are profitable companies!

Company patents granted patents pending

Microsoft 14,439 18,506

IBM 562 652

Linux 11 0

Tata 20 15

Toyota 12,444 5,397

Hyundai 4,545 1,149

Suzuki 1,068 267

 Industries and patents

Innovative companies are also most profitable companies!

Tata motors has 400 patents in India

The various aspects of Tata Nano are covered by 37 patents in India.

 Industries and patents
Industries fiercely fight if anyone infringes their patent
Notable IP litigation victories in 2009:

· A rare permanent injunction against Microsoft won by Canadian software

maker i41--plus a damages award of $290 million.

· A major win by seven Hollywood movie companies granting a preliminary

injunction blocking the sale of RealDVD, a software program that would let
users make personal copies of their own DVDs on up to five computers.

· Versata Software's $138.64 million verdict against German software

vendor SAP AG for infringing a pair of patents covering software that helps
customers manage pricing for products along complex distribution networks.
 Industries and patents
Industries fiercely fight if anyone infringes their patent

Notable IP litigation in India

Bajaj Versus TVS motors.

Bajaj had a patent for two spark plugs in small bore cylinder with two valves.
This was applied in 2002 and granted in 2005. No opposition.

In 2007, TVS introduced a twin spark plug , small bore cylinder with three
valves in their new bike “Flame”.

Just seven days before the launch, they filed a case to revoke the Bajaj
patent saying that it is all known to everyone in the field and that it is not
patentable.

TVS was stopped from selling the bike.

It took about two and a half years for TVS to prove that Bajaj was wrong.
 Industries and patents

“We are losing revenue of about Rs 40 crore a month by not selling Flame. In
terms of market share, the loss is 3%. It is in the interest of employees and
other stakeholders of the company that we decided to launch Flame with a
single spark plug ignition by mid-March,” Venu Srinivasan, chairman, TVS
Motor Company, said.

While TVS was right or not- it was unable to sell the bike till the litigation is
resolved in court. To avoid losses, TVS introduced the bikes with single spark
plug .

Finally they won in 2009 and introduced the originally planned version of the
bike. But what was the cost of all this fight.. in terms of opportunity lost!

So, patent is not a “file and forget” paper matter- it is serious business!
 Universities and patents
In 1980, US passed a resolution that universities can own the patents arising
out of funded research and that they can earn revenues through directly
licensing to users.

This was the trigger for universities to start patenting on a massive scale.

University patents granted patents pending

All universities 57,448 26,447

MIT 3,364 768

Carnegie Mellon 335 73

Cambridge 59 56
 Universities and patents
The quick money makers...

While innovations in physics and mathematics etc take considerable length of

time to find a direct application in life, many of the findings of life sciences
directly yield useful products.

One reason for the phenomenal growth in the biotechnological and

pharmaceutical sectors, in contrast with other sectors, is the shorter time lag
from invention to implementation.
 Universities and patents
An impressive list of drugs and biotechnological innovations entered the
market through the provisions of the Bayh Dole Act.

•Vitamin D metabolites from the University of Wisconsin,

•hepatitis B vaccine from Universties of California and Washington,

•synthetic penicillin from Massachusetts Institutes of Technology,

•Cisplatin and Carboplatin from Michigan State University,

•Neupogen [filgrastim] from the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Institute,

•recombinant DNA technology from Stanford University,

•dorsozolamide for glaucoma from University of Florida etc are but few of
these.
 Indian Universities and patents
Patents from Indian Universities and colleges (June 2009 data)
Sitting on a pool of close to 900 patents, the Indian Institutes of Technology
(IITs) are, for the first time, planning to monetise these intellectual properties
(IPs) by exploring tie-ups with firms that invest in "inventions".

Institutes No. of patents Institutes No. of patents

IIT-D 240 Anna Uty 53
IIT-B 200 VIT 4
IIT-K 100 Thigarajar 4
IIT-M 125 Kongu 39
IIT-KGP 200
IIT-R 12
 The most inspiring individual innovator

Thomas Alva edison has

1093 patents in his name
 Cost involved

Filing charges Rs. 4,000

Request for early publication Rs.10,000 (otherwise wait for 18 months)
Request for examination Rs.10,000
Total Rs.24,000 (self drafting/self filing)

Drafting charges Rs.25,000

Filing charges Rs.10,000
Total through Attorneys Rs.59,000

To keep the patent in force,it has to be renewed annually.

The Renewal charge increases with the age of the patent.
The idea is that as time progresses, you would have made
some revenue out of the invention.
 Cost involved

2nd to 6th year 5 x Rs.2,000 Rs.10,000

7th to 10th year 4 x Rs.6,000 Rs.24,000
11th to 14th year 4 x Rs.12,000 Rs.48,000
15th and 16th year 2 x Rs.20,000 Rs.40,000
Total maintenance cost for 16 years Rs,1,22,000
Cost to us = Income to government
 The important question

Total maintenance cost for 16 years Rs,1,22,000

Add filing charges through attorneys Rs. 59,000

Average cost of a patent Rs.1,81,000

Can you generate

at least this much revenue from the invention
over a period of 16 years?
Only then, it is worth patenting!
 Criteria for patentability

1.Novelty

2.Non obviousness

3.Utility value

Every country has got its own restrictions on what is not

patentable- for example, any idea related to nuclear weapon is
not patentable.
 Criteria for patentability

1.Novelty

Developing a mixie to deliver the functions of a grindstone (ammi) is novel.

Novelty is something new which is not obvious to people skilled in the art.

The invention claimed must be novel indicating that it should be new at the
time of conception.

Novelty of invention must be considered in the light of prior art.

Prior art means the technology that that is relevant to the invention and was
publicly available at the time the invention was made.

It includes prior specifications, patents, printed and published literature and

other materials related to the invention. An invention is not novel if it can be
anticipated in the light of prior art.
The best example of innovating by observing Nature
 Criteria for patentability

2.Non obviousness

An invention should also not be obvious to a person having ordinary skill in

the art to which it relates.

If the invention is obvious and does not have any inventive step, it is not
patentable.

Existence of a prior publication of the invention in any Indian specification

or in any document in India or elsewhere or public use of the invention
would make an invention obvious.

In order to be ineligible for a patent, an invention should be obvious at the

time of conception of the invention and not at the time of contention of
obviousness.
 Example of obviousness in Prior art
In May, 1995 the US Patent Office granted to the University of Mississippi
Medical Center a patent [#5,401,504] for "Use of Turmeric in Wound
Healing."

If an expatriate Indian in America sprinkles turmeric powder -- just as her

ancestors in India have done for centuries-- on her child's scrape, she would
in fact be infringing US patent laws and was open to prosecution.

The patent was promptly challenged by Dr. R A Mashelkar, an Indian

scientist who has done much to awaken India to Intellectual Property Rights
issues.

After four months of submissions it was established that the use of turmeric
as a healing agent was well-known in India. The patent was annulled.
 Example of obviousness in Prior art

In 1996, Vandana Shiva -- an icon for Third World Knowledge Rights --

began to challenge the patent granted to the firm of W.R.Grace & Co by the
European Patent Office, Munich for 'fungicidal uses of neem oil'. Now, it so
happens that neem is as much a divine object in India as turmeric is.

Shiva and Ajay Phadke [who had researched neem for Rhone Poulenc in
India] flagged ancient Indian texts for their eminences in Munich to convince
them that there was no 'novelty' factor in neem's magical properties that
Grace had unveiled-- Indians had known them for long. This patent too was
vacated.

Dr.Mashelkar, now the head of CSIR, India, is directing the creation of a

massive data base that will record all practical ideas proposed in Indian
knowledge systems. Once created this will deny bio-pirates -- on the basis of
prior knowledge of their use having existed -- the patents they seek to profit
by.
 Criteria for patentability

3.Utility value

A patent can be obtained only for an invention which is useful.

A patentable invention should have utility, which implies the inventor should
show some sort of usefulness to the society.

It will be patentable even if it is useful to a minor portion of society or

sometimes only to a single individual.
 Utility Value example
It is not the number but the utility that matters!

The HIndu, March 10.2010

R. Shivaraman, a student of SRM University, has developed an ultra high

density hard drive that can store over 60 times more data than the best hard
disks available today. And the reward for his research, apart from the patents
he has filed and the papers he has published, is a $280,000 a year job as
Associate Scientist in the United States.

He said he will be completing his Ph.D. by the end of the year and is headed
to the United States to work on making his technology commercially viable.
 The Most profitable invention licensed ever
Patent and license others to manufacture and use.
Get paid on every piece used.
Imagine- how many beverage cans are opened every day!
Every time you open a can, the inventor gets paid!
 Migrating to patents
1.To enter the world of patents, we should see what others have done in
our area.

For that, we should start patent search like literature search.

Check patent websites instead of journals.

Most userfriendly site is USPTO.

US patent office http://patft.uspto.gov/ (patent full text)

Has provisions to search on various basis in

a)granted patents and
b)applications filed for patenting

European patent office http://ep.espacenet.com

Indian trends can be searched in www.patentoffice.nic.in or

http://india.bigpatents.org

For free download of patents use www.pat2pdf.org

2.As usual, assess trends, identify gaps and work on those areas.
USPTO website can search in granted patents and awaiting applications
Offers a variety of search options
Getting the full text of a patent
European database
Searching Indian patent database
 Migrating to patents

We should strive to attain patentability by ensuring

Novelty- do something that is unique and never done before by researchers in

that area.

Non obviuosness- never disclose this by way of talking in conferences or

posting in websites or publishing.

Usefulness.-continue till that point where you can find an application for your
work.

Important:
Patent is an ongoing activity.
So, keep a watch on new patent applications,
every fifteen days, using the same search terms.
Companies keep track of the monthly patenting activity of their competitors.
 Patent Status Assessment of SSN research areas
Fuel and energy
solar AND energy: 1621 applications.

Crystal AND Growth : 1537 applications

nano AND material: 934 applications.

alternate AND fuel: 129 applications.

 Patent Status Assessment of SSN research areas
Bio medical versus biomedical beware of the terms!

Patent applications pending till date

Area - typing as bio medical - typing as biomedical

Biomedical 14 698

biomedical+devices 1 161

Biomedical+ drug 0 46

Biomedical+nano 2 8

Speech recognition AND devices : 114

Use of nano materials in drug delivery / biomedical

devices is a potential patentable area.
 Patent Status Assessment of SSN research areas
Chemical engineering
Patent applications pending till date

alternate AND fuel: 129 applications.

Bio AND Fuel: 80

Nano particles AND synthesis: 5

Nano AND Particles : 924 (beware of the search term)
(In addition to the already Granted 335 nano+particles)

Nano AND Filters: 23 (another 17 only in granted list)

Waste water AND Treatment: 267

Ceramic AND Matrix : 650 applications

Nano Filters is a potential patentable area.

 Patent Status Assessment of SSN research areas
Computer Science & Engineering / ECE
Patent applications pending till date

Image AND Processing : 23,877

Computing AND Architecture: 463

Computing AND Mobile : 1058

Robotics: 126 (granted 203)

Computing AND Cloud: 41 (plus another 8 granted)

Cloud Computing is a potential Patentable area.

 Patent Status Assessment of SSN research areas
Computer Science & Engineering / ECE
Patent applications pending till date

Wireless + Communication: 20,474

VLSI: 240

Microwave AND Integrated Circuits : 33 (already granted 110)

Microwave based Integrated circuits is a potential

Patentable area.
 Patent Status Assessment of SSN research areas
Electrical and Electronics Engineering
Patent applications pending till date

Power AND Systems : 5,677

Renewable AND Energy : 255 (Granted 93)

Intelligent And Systems : 566

Micro electronics: 72 (92 granted)

CMOS: 4,645

CMOS AND Integrated chip : 9 (another 7 granted)

CMOS AND Integrated circuits:89 (another 224 granted)

CMOS Integrated chip is a potential Patentable area.

 Patent Status Assessment of SSN research areas
Information Technology
Patent applications pending till date

MOSFET : 2,427

MOSFET AND nano scale : 1 (Granted only another 1 in 2005)

Embedded systems : 1,021

Nano scale MOSFET is a potential Patentable area.

 Patent Status Assessment of SSN research areas
Mechanical engineering

ABST/"friction stir welding": 216 patents. (granted)

ABST/"friction stir welding" AND ABST/steel: 2 applications.

Hits 1 through 2 out of 2

1 20080128472Friction Stir Welding Tool and Friction Stir Welding Apparatus

2 20080029581 Method of joining together dissimilar metal members

ABST/"friction stir welding steel" AND ABST/tool: 0 applications.

ABST/"friction stir welding" AND ABST/"ceramic tool": 0 patents.

Development of tool for FSW of steel is a potential patentable area

 Patent Status Assessment of SSN research areas
Utilising for project proposals

Project proposal on water clarity measurement of sea water

Results of Search in db for:

ABST/"water clarity" AND ABST/measurement: 0 applications.

No application publications have matched your query

Hence can confidently claim novelty of the idea during presentation to

approving authority.

Secchi disc
 Enabling a patenting culture in our college

As a college, there can be a Patent Facilitating Center which can

1.Assess the research publications and deduce the patentable idea of each faculty.

2.Train people on Innovation techniques.

3.Do a Novelty search and guide faculty on what is patentable currently

4.Help in drafting the patent

5.Help in filing the patent and following up with Patent Office till Grant.

6.Explore revenue generation from granted patents.

7.Train more faculty in patent writing skills.

8.Conduct awareness programs for Third year students before they choose a project.

9.Act as a Catalyst to generate at least “one patent per year per department”
 Summary
Patents are like property- must be capable of generating revenue.

Papers to patents must be followed by patents to profit.

To migrate to patents,

start literature search with patents, assess gap and work on it.

Ensure novelty, non-obviousness and utility value of the work.

Apply for patent as early as possible.

Creation of Patent Facilitating Center can accelerate the migration of all.