Rawat, Balwant and Saluja, Navtej, "Patenting Landscape in India" (June 20, 2008). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1148671

The Hindu Business Line : India way behind China in filing patent applications
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/blnus/14251916.htm

India way behind China in filing patent applications- Policy-Economy-News-The Economic Times

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/Economy/India_way_behind_China_in_filing_patent_applications/articleshow/3164673.cms

25 Jun, 2008, 1847 hrs IST, PTI

NEW DELHI: India and China might be the competing economic giants globally, but when it comes to innovation, the land of dragon is way ahead, filing nearly seven times more patent applications compared to our country. According to global research and analytics firm Evalueserve, India filed 35,000 patent applications during the fiscal year 2007-08, whereas China had more than 2.45 lakh applications in 2007. About 35,000 patent applications were filed at the Indian Patent Office (IPO) during the 2007-08 fiscal year, which is an increase of 21 per cent compared to the previous year. Once granted, these patents have a validity of 20 years from their filing date. However, the State Intellectual Property Office of China (SIPO) received a total of 245,161 20-year patent applications in 2007. "This made China the third most prolific patent-filing country in the world after the United States and Japan. Patent filing has been growing both in India and China at about 20 per cent per year. However, the SIPO received approximately the same number of 20-year applications in 1997 as the IPO did in 2007-08. This implies that India is approximately 10 years behind China," Evalueserve said. In 2007, filings by domestic applicants in China accounted for 62.4 per cent of the 20-year patent applications with the SIPO. During the same period, the year-on-year increase in domestic 20-year patent application filing in China was at 25 per cent, whereas that of foreign filings stood at 4.5 per cent.

The Hindu Business Line : Chinese cos increase domestic patent filing

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2008/06/21/stories/2008062151261000.htm

Huawei files for 60 patents, ZTE Corporation for 52

Priyanka Vyas
Thomas K. Thomas

New Delhi, June 20 Chinese companies, often lambasted for selling low cost and copycat goods in India, are increasing the number of patents they file in the domestic market.

Telecom and wireless communication companies such as Huawei Technologies, ZTE Corporation, Inventec (a notebook original design company) and FMCG giant Haier are some of the Chinese companies that have been filing patents locally.

Huawei Technologies that filed 60 patents, according to recent records at the Indian patent office, has been granted six from 2005 onwards. In the same period, ZTE Corporation, which filed 52, received three from the patent office. The other two players, Inventec and Haier, have filed a lesser number — five and three respectively — and have both received one each till now.

“We have two ways of filing a patent in India. One way is by PCT (patent cooperation treaty) application, the other is through the Paris Convention application. Currently, we have very few patents issued in India. While globally, last year, 7,693 patent applications were filed by the company, whether any of these should be applied in India depends on the market environment,” said a spokesperson for Huawei. The company, on an average, files 45-50 patent applications annually from its India R&D centre.

Realising market potential

According to data available at the Indian patent office, the number of patents that were first filed in India from the Republic of China increased from 32 to 45 in the financial year 2006-07. Patents filed in India that had been filed previously in another country rose to 80 from 64.

The highest surge was in the category of PCT applications that stood at 184 in 2006-07, from 132 the year earlier. PCT is a patent law treaty that allows individuals or companies to file applications at an international level, which after being examined is sent to the member countries who then grant it in their jurisdiction.

“Undeniably, Chinese companies recognise the potential of the Indian market by either importing goods or manufacturing here. And the only way to tap the market is by filing patents,” admitted Mr Navtej Saluja, Vice-President, Intellectual Property Research and Legal Process Services, Evalueserve, a data tracking firm.

However, though the number of Chinese companies filing here is growing, they are yet to be ranked among the top 15 foreign players who do so. But as these companies go global, their overseas filings would increase, said Mr Saluja.

Related Stories:
Domestic cos shy away from keeping patents ‘in force’
Patent lessons from China

Patenting Trends in India Facts and Figures

A presentation delivered on the occasion of World IP Day Seminar at FICCI
Presentor: Dr. Navtej Saluja , Vice President, Evalueserve

Daiichi Sankyo gets a patent advantage
Business Standard
Joe C Mathew / New Delhi June 15, 2008, 4:49 IST

Apart from a five per cent share of the Indian pharmaceutical market, the purchase of Ranbaxy will take Daiichi Sankyo way ahead of others in the race among Indian companies for patent-protected drugs.

A recent paper on ‘Patenting Landscape in India' by Evalueserve shows that Ranbaxy alone accounts for over 23 per cent of the total medicine patent applications filed by major domestic companies in India.

The percentage could be as high as 34 if the patent applications submitted by Orchid, in which Ranbaxy has 14.5 per cent, is added.

The Evalueserve study found that Ranbaxy led the group of top 200 patent filers in the period 2005-07 with 320 applications, followed closely by Dr Reddy's with 315 applications. Orchid comes third with 149 patent applications.

By zeroing in on Ranbaxy, Daiichi has managed to get control over the two most aggressive patent filers in the Indian pharmaceutical industry.

"Though applications need not mean grant of patents, the trend is obvious. Daiichi, which does not figure among the top 200 patent applicants in the India office, will lead the race for acquiring patent protection for future medicines," a Mumbai-based patent expert said.

According to him, the data is a clear indication of how acquisitions of Indian companies can be related to intellectual property issues.

Foreign pharmaceutical companies have been way ahead of their Indian counterparts when it comes to patent applications. The Evalueserve study said that Ranbaxy was 37th in the list of top 50 patent filers during 2005-07.

Multinational companies like Pfizer, Novo Nordisk, AstraZeneca, Sanofi Aventis, Novartis, Merck and Roche have all filed more patent applications than Ranbaxy in India.

The Evalueserve study said the patent-filing trend of the top nine Indian pharmaceutical companies was interesting. The companies showed a marked difference in focus with respect to different patent jurisdictions.

Some filed for more international patents, while others chose India. The study also said that if international patent applications were also considered, Ranbaxy's numbers were more than four times those of Dr Reddy's.

New survey reveals India's patenting deficit

Intellectual Asset Management Magazine
12 June 2008
Joff Wild, IAM Magazine

Hot on the heels of its report on patenting in China, research company Evalueserve has turned its attention to India. The result is a fascinating insight into what is happening in the world’s largest democracy. It also shows that, unlike their Chinese equivalents, Indian companies have yet to get to grips with their country’s patent system – something that may not bode well for the ongoing development of the Indian economy.
The report shows that, while there has been a significant increase in filings at the Indian Patent Office, only 20 of the top 200 applicants between 2005 and 2007 were Indian companies. The top 10 local patent filers (with their position within the top 200 in brackets) are:
1. Council of Scientific Industrial Research (CSIR) – 1,523 published applications (1)
2. Ranbaxy Laboratories – 320 published applications (37)
3. Dr Reddy’s Laboratories – 315 published applications (38)
4. Indian Institutes of Technology – 237 published applications (47)
5. Bharat Heavy Electricals – 189 published applications (59)
6. Orchid Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals – 149 published applications (67)
7. Cadila Healthcare – 148 published applications (69)
8. Cipla – 138 published applications (70)
9. Steel Authority of India – 136 published applications (71)
10. Larsen & Toubro – 123 published applications (72)

But many in the top 10 have filed very few applications outside India. For example, between them, the 10 have filed 576 applications at the USPTO, but 356 of these were from the CSIR alone. At the EPO, the total was 552 applications, of which 434 came from CSIR and Ranbaxy. On the PCT front, there were 1,066 applications, almost al of them made by CSIR and the pharmaceutical companies. By contrast, the top 10 Chinese companies between January 2005 and December 2007 had a combined 20,051 published SIPO applications. That said, foreign filings were also comparably very low.
Towards the end, the report makes a couple of very telling observations:
• In 2007, there were 245,161 invention patent applications filed at the SIPO, of which domestic applicants filed more than 62.4%. In contrast, a total of 24,505 applications were filed at the IPO in 2005–06, of which domestic applicants filed 4,855 (approximately 20%) and foreign applicants filed 19,650 (approximately 80%) applications.
• Further, during this period, the year-on-year increase in domestic invention patent application filing in China was 25%, whereas that of foreign filings was only 4.5%. This is a clear indication of increasing awareness of patent application filing among domestic Chinese companies. In contrast … while the number of applications filed by foreign applicants in India has risen steeply (with an annual growth of 77%), the growth in patent application filing by domestic applicants is substantially less (approximately 20%). This low growth may be ascribed to the lack of awareness among domestic Indian companies with respect to patents and the value strong patent portfolios would provide to them.

It seems to me that if India is to fulfil her undoubted potential and truly become a 21st century powerhouse, Indian companies need to start learning a lot more about patents starting today.

To get a copy of The Patenting Landscape in India, fill in and then send this form.

News Story
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.

FedCirc.us - KSR International v. Teleflex Inc.

A Higher Hurdle For Inventors

What You Need to Know About Patents and Their Value

Patent Holder Drops Suit Against Xerox

Some good links about IP by Evalueserve

Patenting in the land of Saraswati and Lakshmi, article in Business Today, Jan 2004
Software and Business Methods - An IP Perspective
Patently- A new Era- IP-survey_BT Evalueserve-Jan2004
The Patents (Amendment) Ordinance, 2004 in India
Offshoring Patent drafting and prosecution services- IP today article May 2005

Other links about IP ,innovation and KPO

Technological Importance of Asian Patents
About KPO - Knowledge Process Outsourcing

Hello folks,

This is Balwant from Evalueserve (EVS), currently working as a senior manager in the Intellectual Property (IP) division. I am heading one of the four IP groups in EVS. I passed out in 2001 from IT-BHU (BTech CS), and joined EVS in October 2001. During the period of more than four years I have seen tremendous growth here (from 50 to 950). As on January 2006, we have a total of 130 people in IP, which will cross 250 by the end of year 2006.

IP Scenario in India

First of all, the scene of IP in India is going to be really hot in the coming years. As more and more big technology firms are increasing their presence in India, Indian companies are feeling the pressure and now formulating their IP strategy.

Some of the press releases about scenario of IP in India are given below:

An article by Alok Aggarwal about IP services in India

India: the big outsourcing hub of patent ideas

India to face more patent litigations

Importance of IP
IP can either make or break a company. In today's competitive world, no company can underestimate the power of IP. Hence, successful companies are proactive in filing patents for any novel and useful ideas before their competitors.

I feel every professional should have at least basic knowledge of IP, in order to stay ahead in this competitive world. I have presented IPR training sessions for certain organizations. During the training sessions, I realized that the current IP awareness of the professionals was quite low, because of which they are not able to fully utilize the commercial potential of their wonderful ideas.

IP is also important for Nation's growth.
Take the example of Japan. Post World war -2, one of the main reasons for progress of Japan has been the focus on innovation and patenting(both in Japan and US).
Picture this patenting trend of top 10 companies filing in US in 2005- Out of top 10 patent filers, 5 are Japanese firms (Canon, Matsushita, Hitachi, Toshiba, and Fujitsu) as against 4 US firms (IBM, HP, Micron, and Intel).


The right IP strategy for a company

There are many ways the companies can benefit from a right IP strategy:
1. Defensive strategy: Filing for patents in order to protect their intellectual property, and preventing other companies from copying the products/ideas.
2. Offensive strategy: Identifying if other companies are using their ideas (consciously or unconsciously), and generating money by licensing or infringement suits
3. Collaboration strategy: Rather than re-inventing the wheel and developing the products from scratch, sometimes its easier and cheaper to in-license the relevant technology from patent holders.
4. Patent watch: The companies should also be continuously looking at:

• New patents being filed in their technology domains (by the other companies and independent inventors) to assess chances of IP infringement or a collaboration strategy
• Old patents to find out if they are infringing on any third party patent, and to make the right business decision in time.
  

Work in Evalueserve

The majority of work here relates to Patents (though Intellectual Property includes copyright, trademark, industrial design also). Some of the main IP services offered are:

1. Patentibility Analysis: If you have got an invention or a useful idea (lets say a device to), is the invention patentable?
2. Patent drafting
3. Freedom to operate analysis
4. Invalidation search
5. IP Landscape analysis
6. IP Licensing support