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Patents reveal what competitors have up their sleeves Online databases can yield clues on innovation efforts, says Evalueserve
http://www.research-live.com/news_story.aspx?pageid=30&r=y&newsid=3871

INDIA-- Research and analytics firm Evalueserve has been demonstrating the competitive intelligence that can be gleaned from the internet’s patent databases.

In an exercise designed to showcase some of the techniques behind its bespoke services, the firm looked at patents held or applied for by technology giants Microsoft, IBM, Yahoo and Google. Among its discoveries is that Google may be working on a Google Phone, and targeting the TV and videogame advertising markets.

Evalueserve says the key to finding out what competitors have up their sleeves lies in correlating information from multiple sources. The standard database of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is often the first port of call, but more digging is usually required to find out who each patent belongs to – since ownership details can be withheld, and can change over time.

The firm also trawled through the USPTO’s patent assignment database, which records ownership, as well as files held by the European Patent Office and the Patent Cooperation Treaty.

In Google’s case, less than a quarter of patents and applications could be found through the standard database, said Balwant Rawat, Evalueserve’s manager of intellectual property services. Rawat told Research: “A typical researcher might not be able to identify who is the owner. What we’re seeing is that we can combine several databases to yield a more complete and more reliable search.”

Evalueserve, which employs 210 people in intellectual property research, found hundreds of patents belonging to Google, including a mobile phone case and software relating to mobile telephony. There were also several patents involving the delivery of dynamic videogame ads.

The firm said: “Since these leading edge companies are constantly innovating and creating barriers for their competitors, they are also continuously filing patent applications and getting many if not most of them granted. Hence, searching through databases… is one way of gaining an insight into the strategic direction of these companies.”

Author: Robert Bain
Published on the 29th October 2007

Patent Office Rule Changes Alter the Patent Landscape

Search, you’ll find Google ads on mobile, TV

The Financial Express
Vrishti Beniwal
Posted online: Wednesday, October 03, 2007 at 0116 hrs IST

New Delhi, Oct 2 Google may soon reach out to mobile phone users, TV viewers and video game lovers. A search by Evalueserve into the database of the US Patent and Trademark Office revealed that the California-based company is looking at newer fields like broadcasting ads directly to TV, embedding ads in video games and payments at shopping malls via mobile phones.

Currently, the search engine gets most of its revenue from Internet advertising, with Google-owned sites generating $2.49 billion, or 64% of total revenues, in the April-June quarter. But now the search engine is expanding its horizon and may soon come up with a receiver circuit that can enhance the performance of an audio/video receiver such as digital TV.

It may also come up with a method for enhancing video games systems by providing ads, prizes and other benefits to gamers.

A visual mobile search system that utilises images captured by cellphone cameras is also on the cards. This may facilitate image recognition, bar code reading and automatic payment processing at Google servers.

According to Madan Mohan, director (consulting), ICT practice, Frost & Sullivan, “Most of these services are search-based, which is the core competency of Google. It is looking at finding consumption patterns through algorithm, which will help target customised ads to the right individual. This kind of personal information is not available till now. Concerns have been raised that this might be a violation of individual privacy.”

A Google spokesperson, when contacted, said, "We file patent applications on a variety of ideas that our employees come up with. Some of those ideas later mature into real products or services, some don't. Prospective product announcements should not necessarily be inferred from our patent applications.”

Meanwhile, Yahoo is also looking at the concept of Television 2.0, that is similar to Web 2.0. This implies TV will become an online social network where users will interact in real time. “It will no more be ‘I produce, you consume’. Companies are looking at a two-way interaction platform, where the user participates in content creation,” said Mohan.

Domestic auto-makers speed up patent filings

Business Standard
Rediff
http://www.rediff.com/money/2007/sep/25auto.htm
September 25, 2007 03:22 IST

Faced with growing competition from global automotive companies, domestic auto-makers are furiously patenting their technology as a way of defending themselves against the competition.

This is reflected in the fact that the number of patents filed by the six top local auto makers in the country jumped 85 per cent in just 18 months since January 2005 against the 10-year period between Januray 1995 and December 2004, according to data from Evalueserve, a firm that tracks patent filings.

In contrast, companies like Maruti [Get Quote] Suzuki, Hero Honda and Ashok Leyland [Get Quote] (which has a tie-up with Iveco) that depend on their global partners for the bulk of their technology account for just 2 per cent of all patents filed.

"Automobile companies realise that foreign models will find ready takers in the Indian market and falling import tariffs are lowering the price barrier. With increasing competition, patented technology that offers new features can help save market share," said Vaishali Jajoo, an auto analyst with Angel Broking, adding: "In the future, companies will use patents on diesel, gas and hybrid models to tap market share."

The overall success rate between patents filed and those that were eventually granted -- a reflection of in-house research and development ability -- is also impressive.

The number of patents granted to the major auto makers -- Bajaj, TVS [Get Quote], Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) and Tata Motors [Get Quote] -- as a ratio to the number of patents filed is 24.38 per cent.

Among the companies, Chennai-based TVS Motors, which was recently accused of infringing patent rights by Bajaj Auto [Get Quote], is the leader in terms of the sheer volume of patent filings in India.

According to data from Evalueserve, the company has filed 131 patents to the Indian Patent Office since January 1995, of which 70 per cent have been filed since January 2005, speeding up after its joint venture with Suzuki ended in 2001.

However, when it comes to the success rate, Tata Motors takes the top honours, with the ratio between patents filed and issued at 60 per cent.

"Our expenditure on research and development (R&D) has always been over 2 per cent of turnover. The frequency of filing patents will also increase in the future," said the company, which is the maker of the first fully indigenously built car, Indica.

The company's expenditure on R&D was Rs 797 crore in 2006-07, a 67 per cent increase over the previous year.

In terms of the success rate of the number of patents filed and applications accepted, Tata Motors is followed by Bajaj Auto, with a success rate of 22 per cent on 53 filings since January 1995.

Among the prominent patents to its name is the DTS-i technology (Digital Twin Spark-Injection) that powers its flagship brand Pulsar. Earlier this year, Bajaj Auto had introduced two variants of this technology.

TVS Motors comes third with a success rate of 20 per cent on 131 applications filed over the same period. The company executives refused to talk on any patent-related subject owing to the dispute with Bajaj.

The company has used technologies like VTi (variable transmission ignition) and RTR (racing throttle response) in its motorcycles. However, the company said it had kept a minimum benchmark level of 2.5 per cent of total sales on R&D.

Utility vehicle manufacturer M&M is in the fourth position with a 13.33 per cent success rate on the 30 applications it has filed since January 2005.

"Our patents are mainly in the area of engines, ergonomics and thermal management. Intellectual property rights (IPR) will be the backbone of M&M as our range of products, platforms and systems are wider now. Personally, I have four patents issued in my name in the US, Europe and Japan," said Arun Jaura, senior vice-president (R&D and global product development), M&M

Google's Secret Patent Portfolio Predicts gPhone -- Google Patents -- InformationWeek
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=201807587&cid=RSSfeed_IWK_News

An analysis of Google's worldwide patent portfolio shows the search giant's filings include not only mobile-phone tech, but also video games and TV.

By Thomas Claburn
InformationWeek
September 19, 2007 02:00 PM
In a new report obtained by InformationWeek, the firm claims that most of Google's patent portfolio may be missed by simply searching the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office's (USPTO) online database.

Seeking Web 2.0-related patents published during the period January 2001 to May 2007, Evalueserve says that it scoured the Delphion patent database for patents and patent applications filed at the USPTO, the European Patent Office (EPO), the Japanese Patent Office (JPO), and the World-wide Intellectual Property Office (WIPO).

Unsurprisingly, it found that Google, IBM, Microsoft, and Yahoo were the most active filers. Yet Google's patents turned out to be less evident through a USPTO search than the patents of its competitors.

"The search strategy given above concludes that only 13% of Google's total filings are at the USPTO, whereas 78% of its filings are PCT [Patent Cooperation Treaty] applications," the Evalueserve report says. "This result seems to stand out since more than 50% of the filings of Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT), IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) are also at the USPTO. However, a closer examination reveals that around 84% of the U.S. patent applications filed by Google in the Web 2.0 space did not have Google's name printed on the published patent application, since this information was not provided to the USPTO at the time of filing."

The firm cites as an example a Feb. 4, 2002, patent by Daly City, Calif.-based inventor Louis Irizarry, "Cellular telephone case," as a patent that lends weight to rumors about a Google phone. The patent does not list Google as the owner, unlike many other Google patents. However, a search of the USPTO's patent assignment database reveals that Google is indeed the owner.

Evalueserve identifies several other non-obvious Google patents that support the notion of a Google phone: U.S. Patent number 6,982,945, "Baseband Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum Transceiver"; U.S. Patent number 6829289, "Application of a Pseudo-randomly Shuffled Hadamard Function in a Wireless CDMA System"; U.S. Patent Application number US 20070067329, "Overloaded Communication Session"; U.S. Patent Application number US20070159522, "Image-based Contextual Advertisement Method and Branded Barcodes"; U.S. Patent Application number US20060004627, "Advertisements for Devices with Call Functionality Such as Mobile Phones"; U.S. Patent Application number US20050185060, "Image Base Inquiry System for Search Engines for Mobile Telephones with Integrated Cameras"; and U.S. Patent Application number US20070066364, "Customized Data Retrieval Applications for Mobile Devices Providing Interpretation of Markup Language Data."

Google didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

While Evalueserve makes a strong case for the value of thorough competitive intelligence, it's likely that Google's competitors, patent filers all, have done their due diligence and are well aware of Google's intellectual property claims, not to mention the interests and expertise of its researchers.

Moreover, asserting that Google may have an interest in video games, TV, and mobile e-commerce is hardly a revelation given that Google purchased an in-game ad company, AdScape, is the proud owner of YouTube, and has been pushing Google Checkout, not to mention mobile ads and assorted mobile services, for a while now.

Google getting into the document shredding business, now that would be a surprise.

News - Legal Outsourcing Legal Offshoring Legal Support Services
http://www.blonnet.com/2006/12/05/stories/2006120504980100.htm

The Hindu Business Line

East Asia a market for legal outsourcing

With companies from non-English speaking countries such as South Korea, China, and Japan requiring to file patents in the US and European courts to expand business opportunities, legal process outsourcing companies (LPOs) here have set their eyes on the markets in these regions.
"The US and the UK constitute a major chunk of our business. However, we are expecting to rope in more clients from Japan, South Korea, China, Malaysia.
"We expect our revenues from the new countries to increase by 20 per cent in the next one year," said Mr Sanjay Kamlani, CEO, Pangea 3. Similarly, Integreon, a Mumbai-based legal outsourcing firm, is also spreading wings in the non-English speaking market.
Hiring Indian lawyers
Mr Balwant Rawat, Head, Intellectual Property Division at Evalueserve explains, "Since to engage US lawyers for the entire process is expensive, many would look to hiring Indian lawyers for it." In the IP domain, business from these countries is expected to double over the next two years.

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