Proposal for expedited examination of Patent application

DIPP issued notification inviting comments on several amendments to patent law. One of the proposed change relates to expeditious processing of patent application when:

• the applicant in the international application designated Indian Patent office as International Searching Authority.
• the applicant, assignee or licensee already starting manufacturing the invention in India or
• undertakes to commence manufacturing in India within 2 years from the date of grant of aptent.

Read for Details

India attracts USD 24 billion as R&D investment in 2015 from North America and Europe based MNCs

Asia becomes the top region for corporate R&D spend, according to the 2015 Global Innovation 1000 Study, from Strategy&, PwC’s Strategy Consulting Business. 
Report highlights:

•  In 2015, R&D spending by the Global Innovation 1000 increased 5.1% to $680 billion.
• Globalization increasingly becomes the norm , 94% of firms conduct R&D beyond just their home country,
•  Asia has become the top destination for corporate R&D spend in 2015, accounting for 35% of total in-region R&D, including both domestic and imported R&D. This places Asia ahead of North America and Europe, who dropped to third, in a complete reversal from 2007 when Europe was the previous leader.
• The U.S. remains the largest spender of in-country corporate R&D, with in-country (domestic & imported) R&D spend at $145 billion in 2015, up 34% since 2007. Imported R&D spend to the U.S., mostly coming from Europe, in 2015 is $53 billion, up 23% from 2007. Exported R&D spend in 2015 is $121 billion, up 51% from 2007, predominantly going to Asia where previously in 2007 it was going to Europe.
• The three largest industries for R&D Spend in 2015 are computing and electronics (C&E), healthcare and auto. In particular, healthcare is on track to pass C&E as the largest industry by R&D spend by 2019.
• The largest spenders by region have remained the same, but where they spend their R&D has changed . In 2015, almost half of all R&D spend came from North American companies, but only about a third of all R&D was actually done in North America. 
• R&D ( domestic and MNCs) in China increased by 120% (2007 to 2015) to $billion surpassing Japan's R&D spending of $50 billion. India's R&D spend at $28 Billion is higher than Southkorea $ 13 Billion, and Taiwan's $ 6 Billion.
• China’s imports of R&D from multinationals headquartered in other countries were $44 billion in 2015. The U.S. led in exports of R&D to China in 2015, accounting for 39 percent of inflow, followed by Japan (20 percent) and Germany (10 percent). Survey respondents cited proximity to a high-growth market as the top reason for moving R&D to China (71 percent), followed by proximity to key manufacturing sites (59 percent), proximity to key suppliers (54 percent), and lower development costs (53 percent). 
• Total corporate R&D conducted in India increased 115 percent between 2007 and 2015, to $28 billion. The growth was powered by R&D spending from other countries, which grew 116 percent. India, not surprisingly, is the largest global destination for software R&D. Multinationals that have moved R&D to India cite a variety of reasons for the move, and cost is often not the most important. “Our tech center in India gives us an around-the-clock capability to accelerate development work due to the time difference with the U.S'.  “The highest priority was access to technical talent that was in close proximity to regional customers. The fact that some of the labor is lower-cost was nice to have, but not a primary driver".
• USA based MNCs spent 43% of their R&D budget at home, another 15% in India, 15% in China, 9% in UK.

Royalty Payments by Maruti- importance of stage in Technology Life Cycle

IiAS has brought out a  report on royalty payments by Maruti, IiAS examined Maruti’s royalty payouts in the context of revenues, margins, and research and development (R&D) spends, and concludes that Maruti’s royalty payouts are extortive.Maruti has been paying royalty to Suzuki for its car manufacturing technology since inception. Over the past five years (2010-11 to 2014-15), Maruti’s aggregate payout towards royalty was Rs.118.7 bn while the 5-year profit before tax (PBT) aggregated Rs. 167.7 bn (Table 1). In 2014-15 alone, royalty expenses aggregated 36% of profit before tax and royalty. While royalty to Suzuki per car sold is Rs 21,414/- Maruti's R&D per car produced is only Rs 3600./-This argument of royalty extortion was countered by Financial Express. The paper defended the high royalties on several grounds, primarily the company’s tremendous performance vis-a-vis peers and second capital appreciation and dividends that the stock returned to investors.
Looking beyond shareholders benefits
We have no comments on what is good or bad for majority shareholders or minority shareholders. From a national perspective, we need to ask the question- how does market leader in automobiles behave in China? Do they still pay royalties for petrol/ diesel powered cars? The Chinese planned for the future, invested heavily in batter technology, acquired startups where required and based on the strength in Battery technology, they negotiate as grown ups.  A case in point is all-electric Denza car in China  produced by BYD Auto in a joint venture with Daimler.

Patents and Royalty payments are indicators of technology diffusion. Market leaders are also expected to invest in technology generation. What is required to wean away cash rich market leaders like Maruti from their old parents? 

Technology Tipping Points 2015

World Economic Forum report concludes several technologies are nearing tipping point. In March 2015, the Global Agenda Council on the Future of Software & Society launched the Technological Tipping Points survey. Based on the council’s discussions over previous months, the survey asked respondents for their views on 21 “tipping points” – moments when specific technological shifts hit mainstream society. Aiming to provide a snapshot of expectations from a community of over 800 executives and experts from the information and communications technology sector, the survey asked respondents for their perception of when these tipping points would occur, offering date ranges from “it has already happened” to “20+ years”. The option of “never” was also available. A total of 816 responses were received. Predictions:

2018-Storage for All 
2021-Robot and Services
2022-The Internet of and for Things,  Wearable Internet,  3D Printing and manufacturing.
2023 -Implantable Technologies, Big Data for Decisions, Vision as the New Interface,  Our Digital Presence
2024 -Ubiquitous Computing, 3D Printing and Human Health, The Connected Home 
2025 -3D Printing and Consumer Products, AI and White-Collar Jobs, The Sharing Economy
2026 -Driverless Cars,  AI and Decision- Making ,  Smart Cities
2027-Bitcoin and the Blockchain Manufacturing,

From Indian perspective hype on Smart Cities is interesting. The tipping point defined as the first city with more than 50,000 inhabitants and no traffic lights is expected by 2026. These smart cities will manage their energy, material flows, logistics and traffic. Progressive cities, such as Singapore and Barcelona, are already implementing many new data-driven services, including intelligent parking solutions, smart trash collection and intelligent lighting. Smart cities are continuously extending their network of sensor technology and working on their data platforms, which will be the core for connecting the different technology projects and adding future services based on data analytics and predictive modelling.  The city of Santander in northern Spain has 20,000 sensors connecting buildings, infrastructure, transport, networks and utilities. The city offers a physical space for experimentation and validation of functions, such as interaction and management protocols, device technologies, and support services such as discovery, identity management and security. 

Guyed Transmission Towers- Indian Innovation journey in Valley of Death

Young Rajiv Gandhi, during his visit abroad noticed that transmission lines there were erected in a different way carried by helicopters. His comments were noticed and one public sector undertaking TSL (Triveni Structurals Limited) Naini ventured to develop the guyed transmission towers in India. Their proposal for development of various types of 400KV and 765KV self supporting and guyed type transmission line towers was approved by DSIR under PATSER in 1997. TSL successfully designed , fabricated towers and type tested at SERC, Chennai.
Then began the journey thru the Valley of Death. Several meetings were held with Power Grid Corporation for a pilot demo in 5 km and every meeting ended with `Yes, But'. The public sector undertaking TSL turned sick, researcher Tripathi retired and I closed the file with audit remarks about wasteful expenditure.
Today, the news report that this innovation will land up in J&K, for the transmission line of Sterlite by supplier Burns & McDonnel. While I am happy to see adoption of this innovation in India, cannot forget the image of dejected researcher Tripathiji.     

Utility Patents- Australia abolishes them and India wants to enact law.

There are many experts who argue that Indian SMEs would be more innovative, if Utility patents are awarded in India.  As per news reports the draft under consideration advocates Utility patents saying that   “This will help identify the actual, potential and untapped areas of creativity and innovation and facilitate preparation of focused strategy to channelize efforts and financial resources where they are needed,” “Utility patents or protection of grassroots innovation have been an established system in many other countries, including developed economies as they form a key part of the scientific and economic development.”  

In this background reasons for Australia abolishing Utility Patents called `Innovation Patent' need to be examined in depth. When introducing utility patents/ petty patents in Australia, similar assumptions were made.

1.4 Objectives of the innovation patent system The need for a utility model to promote, protect and disclose lower level inventions in Australia has been extensively investigated several times over the last 40 years. In the early 1970s, the Designs Law Review Committee (the Franki Committee) found that there was a ‘gap’ for functional inventions that were not sufficiently inventive to gain patent protection and were not protectable under the designs system.33 Their recommended solution to this ‘gap’ was the establishment of a ‘petty patent’ system and an amendment to the designs system to allow for the protection of ‘functional designs’. Subsequently, the Government amended the Patents Act 1990 (Patents Act) in 2000 to establish the innovation patent system. Subsection 7(4) of the amended Patents Act defined an ‘innovative step’ as follows: For the purposes of this Act, an invention is to be taken to involve an innovative step when compared with the prior art base unless the invention would, to a person skilled in the relevant art, in the light of the common general knowledge as it existed in the patent area before the priority date of the relevant claim, only vary from the kinds of information set out in subsection (5) in ways that make no substantial contribution to the working of the invention.

Assessment

A key finding in this research paper is that Australian SMEs are less likely to use the patent system after filing an innovation patent than a company that has not previously filed an innovation patent. This suggests that innovative activity is not being stimulated among these groups by the innovation patent system.

According to the research paper:

The great majority of Australian SMEs and private inventors appear to gain little benefit from the system… Only 23 SMEs have become moderate users of the innovation patent system … The average SME or private inventor files once and never again (74%), does not receive any enforceable right (83%) and lets their patent expire early because they see its value at less than the $110-$220 cost of renewal (78%). (page 2)

Other evidence in the research paper indicates that the costs and benefits of the innovation patent system do not accrue evenly across the users of the system. While 94% of innovation patent applications are made by private inventors or SMEs and they incur 95% of the regulatory costs of the system, larger firms who are already well served by the standard patent system tend to reap a disproportionate share of the benefits.

The report estimates that the private value of innovation patents is of a similar magnitude to the regulatory costs incurred (in the low tens of millions of dollars per annum). ACIP agrees with the finding in the report that the private gains from innovation patents are likely to be offset by the uncertainty costs to consumers and producers. In view of the newly available evidence, ACIP considers that, taking into account the overall costs and benefits of the system, it is likely to result in a net cost to society.

The World's Most Innovative Universities 2015-Reuters

Since World War II, universities around the world have been relied on to convert public funding into knowledge and products that help drive the global economy. So how can potential partners, investors, faculty and students know if an institution is really transforming science and technology and impacting the global economy? To answer that question, Reuters set out to find and rank the world's top 100 innovative universities empirically, building a methodology that employs 10 different metrics. The criteria focused on academic papers, which indicate basic research performed at a university, and patent filings, which point to an institution's interest in protecting and commercializing its discoveries.

Methodology:

The process began by identifying the 500 academic and government organizations that published the greatest number of articles in scholarly journals from 2008 to 2013, as indexed in the Thomson Reuters Web of Science database. The list was cross referenced against the number of patents filed by each organization during the same time period in the Derwent World Patents Index and the Derwent Innovations Index. Patent equivalents, citing patents and citing articles were included up to July 2015. 

Criteria: Patent Volume, Patent Success, Global Patents, Patent Citations, Patent Citation Impact, Percent of Patents Cited, Patent to Article Citation Impact,Industry Article Citation Impact, Percent of Industry Collaborative Articles and Total Web of Science Papers.

Stanford tops the list and list also includes universities from S.Korea and China.

TePP supported Indian startup Nualgi wins 2015 Climate CoLab awards

In March 2015, the Climate CoLab opened 15 contests on key challenges the world is facing as we confront climate change.Nearly 400 proposals were submitted and evaluated by the Judges, who then selected 109 Semi-Finalists. The authors had a chance to revise their proposals with the Judges' feedback before entering a second round of evaluation, where 58 proposals were selected as Finalists and opened for public voting.  Over August and September, the Climate CoLab community grew to over 45,000 members and cast over 11,000 votes to select the contests' Popular Choice winners.

Nualgi invented by Sampathkumar of Bangalore and supported by DSIR under TePP was selected as winner under Energy-Water Nexus and also under Waste Management.

Indian Patent Office Rejects Pfizer’s Patent for Tofacitinib

Pfizer Products, Inc. (Pfizer) filed Indian patent application 991/MUMNP/2003 (‘991 application) entitled “Chiral Salt Resolution” in the Indian Patent Office (IPO) on October 27, 2003. The ‘991 application is a national phase application of WO 02/096909 (PCT/IB02/01905) filed on May 29, 2002. WO 02/096909 claims priority to U.S. application no. 60/294,775 filed on May 31, 2001 and U.S. application no. 60/341,048 filed on December 6, 2001.The closest prior art, WO 01/42246 (D1), also owned by Pfizer, was filed on November 23, 2000 and published on June 14, 2001. D1 claims priority to U.S. application no. 60/170,179 filed on December 10, 1999.

September 3, 2015 Decision by the Assistant Controller of Patents and Designs (Assistant Controller)

Regarding the novelty rejection, the Assistant Controller rejected Pfizer’s argument that D1 was not prior art. Specifically, the Assistant Controller referred to Section 13(1)(b) which refers to “anticipation by prior claiming” and states that “the invention is claimed in any claim of any other complete specification published on or after the date of filing of the applicant’s complete specification, being a specification filed in pursuance of an application for a patent made in India and date before or claiming the priority date earlier than that date”. The Assistant Controller noted that for the purpose of determining novelty, an application for a patent filed in the Indian Patent Office before the filing date of a complete specification of a later filed application but published later, is prior art for the purposes of “prior claiming”.

Source: bricwallblog

Private University Bill of A.P- draft placed on web for comments

AP State govt placed on web Private University Bill draft and invited comments/ discussion on the same before 30th Sept 2015. Salient futures of the bill:

• The University shall be a Green Field one and unitary in nature and shall not have power or provision to affiliate and recognize any college or institution to it.
• A Regulatory Authority shall be established by the Government for the purpose of providing a regulatory mechanism at the state level for working as an interface between the Government and the Regulatory Bodies for the purpose of ensuring appropriate standards of teaching, examination, research, extension programmes and protection of interests of the students.
• The University shall obtain accreditation from the National of Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) within five years of its establishment. 
•  The Sponsoring body shall establish an Endowment Fund for the University with an amount specified in the Letter of Intent.The University if required may utilize 75% of the income from Endowment Fund for the development of infrastructure of the University and not to meet the recurring expenditure of the University.
• Every University shall establish a fund, which shall be called the General Fund to which fees, sponsored projects, consultancy etc shall be credited, These funds to be utilised for payment of salaries, loan interest, maintenance etc
• The Sponsoring body shall establish an Endowment Fund with a minimum amount of Rs.5.00 crore. The Sponsoring body shall procure a minimum of 30 acres of land within municipal limits and 40 acres in other areas, if not already available.The Sponsoring body shall construct buildings such as Administrative, Academic and other buildings such as student activity center, auditorium etc. with a minimum plinth area of 10,000 sqm. The sponsoring body should invest minimum of Rs 30 lakhs on library books ,Rs 200 lakhs on lab equipment and Rs 100 lakhs on IT infrastructure.
• The Sponsoring body shall start at least five post graduate academic departments.
• within five years  to provide on campus residential accommodation to at least 25% of students and 20% of faculty.

Integrated scheme for Risk Guarantee support to public private partnerships in creating world-class Technology Business Incubators (TBIs)

AP government invited proposals from TBIs under their new scheme "Integrated scheme for Risk Guarantee support to public private partnerships in creating world-class Technology Business Incubators (TBIs)".

• land or built up area min 100,000 sq.ft will be made available to TBIs for 90years lease for live-play-work.
• 85% of project cost with a cap of Rs 150 crores will be provided as soft loan at 6% simple interest payable after project period of 15 years.
• eligibility- incubator should have incubated a minimum of 100 startups and managed atleast 25,000 sqft of incubator infrastructure.

This is invitation for empanelment and supersedes earlier scheme of providing support at Rs12,500/-per incubatee per month. 

Science & Technology in India- achievements & highlights

D KV Swaminathan, an engineer, scientist & technocrat is a specialist in design of Arc Dams, technology transfer and intellectual property. He held many positions like Controller General of Patents, Designs & trademarks, Professor at IISc, Director of APCTT, a former Adviser in DSIR. Now he is Chairman, Waterfalls Institute of Technology Transfer and Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute. 
He brought out this compilation of about 80 significant achievements in S&T in the second edition. First edition was released in 2010. Each one of them are remarkable milestones on the map to build strong knowledge based Indian economy.

Contact:
Waterfalls Institute of Technology Transfer
J-29, South extension-1
New Delhi -110049
Ph: 24642269
mail: wittchennai@gmail.com

New guidelines for the examination of computer related inventions (CRIs) by the Indian Patent office (IPO)

Section 3(K) of India’s Patents Act proscribes the patenting of “a mathematical or business method or a computer program per se or algorithms”. Until last week, the most recent guidance on that question was a set of guidelines for examination of CRIs released in 2013. These, many contend  “seem to encourage novelty in hardware to overcome rejections”. The guidelines now contain illustrative examples of claims that are patentable.
The following are examples (illustrative but not exhaustive) of some of the granted claims by Indian Patent Office: 
Example 8.1: An apparatus (610, 650) for eigenvalue decomposition and singular value decomposition of matrices in wireless communications comprising: plurality of transmitters ( 622a; 622ap ); plurality of receivers ( 622a; 622ap ); a controller (630) configured to receive traffic data and generating data symbols; a transmit (TX) data processor (614) coupled to said controller (630); a receive (RX) data processor (642) coupled to said controller (630); a channel processor (628) coupled to said controller (630); wherein said channel processor (628) and said controller (630) performs a plurality of iterations of Jacobi rotation on a first matrix of complex values with a plurality of Jacobi rotation matrices of complex values, wherein, for each of the plurality of  iterations, said channel processor (628) and said controller (630) is configured to form a submatrix based on the first matrix, to decompose the submatrix to obtain eigenvectors for the submatrix, to form a Jacobi rotation matrix with the eigenvectors, and to update the first matrix with the Jacobi rotation matrix, and to derive a second matrix of complex values based on the plurality of Jacobi rotation matrices, the second matrix comprising orthogonal vectors; and a memory (632) coupled to the said channel processor (628, 630) and said controller (678, 680). 
Example 8.2: A method for granting an access to a computer-based object, wherein - a memory card having a program code processor is provided, with at least one public and one private key assigned to the memory card being stored thereon, - an item of license information which comprises at least one license code encrypted by means of the public key assigned to the memory card is provided at a computing device controlling the access to the computer-based object, - a symmetric key which is made available to the memory card and the computing device is generated from a first random number generated by the memory card and from a second random number provided by the computing device, - the encrypted license code and a specification, provided with a hash value encrypted using the symmetric key, of a function that is to be executed by the memory card for decrypting the license code are transmitted to the memory card, - the encrypted hash value is decrypted by the memory card and checked for agreement with a hash value computed for the specification of the function to be executed by the memory card, - if the result of the check is positive, the function for decrypting the license code is executed by the memory card and a decrypted license code is transmitted to the computing device, - the decrypted license code is provided at least temporarily for accessing the computer-based object. 
Example 8.3: A method of controlling an electronic device (1) comprising a touch sensitive display (11) the method comprising: displaying a plurality of graphical items (43) on the touch sensitive display (11) where each graphical item (43) has an identity (44); detecting a coupling, formed by a user, of at least two graphical items (43), the coupling comprising, a trace on the touch sensitive display (11) between the at least two graphical items (43); and, performing an action dependent upon the identity (44) of the coupled graphical items (43), Page 16 of 21 characterized in that when characterized in that when the user begins to make the trace, an indication is displayed to indicate the item ( 43) on which the trace began. 
Example 8.4: A computer-implemented method comprising: identifying one or more person names in a set of one or more documents, with each identified person name more likely to refer to a single person in a profession than other person names in the document: identifying descriptive language from one or more documents, based on the identified names; and identifying within one or more documents other person names that refer to persons in the profession, based on one or more portions of the identified descriptive language.
Example 8.5: A method for providing a network bridge in UDP multicast traffic, the method being executed by a multicast repeater (108a; 708a) on a host computer system (104a, 704a) on a network 102a; 702a), the method comprising the steps of: holding information about one or more other multicast repeaters ( 108a; 708a) which have been discovered, each multicast repeater (108a; 708a) being arranged on a separate network (102b; 702b) that is separated from the network (102a; 702a) including a host by at least one network device that is not configured to route UDP multicast addressing; and at each time when a UDP multicast request packet (320; 720) is received via multicast, extracting a globally unique packet ID from the UDP multicast request packet (320; 720); determining whether or not the multicast repeater (108a; 708a) has previously forwarded the UDP multicast request packet (320; 720) by searching an ID cache for the packet ID; ignoring the UDP multicast request packet (320; 720) in a case where the multicast repeater (1 08a; 708a) has previously forwarded the UDP multicast request packet (320; 720); and in a case where the multicast repeater (108a; 708a) has not previously forwarded the UDP multicast request packet (320; 720), transmitting the UDP multicast request packet (320; 720) to the one or more other multicast repeaters (108a; 708a) which have been discovered, and recording the packet ID in the ID cache, wherein the method comprises determining whether or not a UDP multicast request packet corresponding to a UDP multicast response packet (320; 720) has originated in the network (102a;702a) whenever the UDP multicast response packet is received. 
Example 8.6: A method for estimating a length of time required to download one or more application programs on a wireless device over wireless network, said method comprising operations of: the wireless device exchanging one or more data files with server, said data files including at least information representing a size of the one or more application programs available for downloading onto the wireless device; during the exchanging, at least one of the server and wireless device measuring one or more data transfer rates for the exchanging operation; receiving user input of one or more application programs to download; at least one of the server and wireless device: utilizing the one or more measured data transfer rates and the size of the selected one or more application programs to estimate a length of time required to download the one or more application programs onto the wireless device and the wireless device providing an output of the estimated time. Example 8.7: A method for tracking a mobile electronic device using instant messaging (IM), the method comprising the steps of: determining whether a currently inserted subscriber identity module (SIM) card is different from the SIM card stored in a memory of a mobile electronic device; stealthily initiating a live voice call over an instant messaging (IM) message to a predefined IM identity of a user; and automatically sending IM message along with the live voice call, location and IMSI number of the currently inserted SIM card to the predefined IM identity of the user via an IM server if the currently inserted SIM card is different from the SIM card stored in the memory of the mobile electronic device. 
Example 8.8: A method of creating Tunnel End Points for a IPv6 over IPv4 tunnel using simple network management protocol (SNMP) in a system having Dual-Stack Border Router as v4/v6 nodes, the method comprising steps of: selecting at least one v4/v6 node as SNMP manager and the rest as SNMP agent configuring the tunnel configuration pertaining to the new node (cloud) at the SNMP manager whenever a new v4/v6 node is added to the v4 network;  sending an SNMP SET request to the new v4/v6 node with the tunnel configuration information of all the nodes by the SNMP manager; processing the SNMP SET request by the said new v4/v6 node and configuring the tunnel configuration information of all the nodes if the attempt succeeds; sending a response to the SNMP manager indicating success or failure of the configuration; configuring existing SNMP agents and the new node in order to effect incorporation of tunnel configuration information of new v4/v6 node. Example 8.9: IPAB Decision relating to CRI While dealing with a patent application having title “Method for controlling a wind turbine and a wind turbine”,

 IPAB observed: “This is normally a computer operated or computer controlled technical instrumentation processing of the utilities to achieve the target in an automatic fashion and this technical process control associated with or directed to a computer set up to operate in accordance with a specified program (whether by means of hardware or software) for controlling or carrying out a technical process control such as the above, cannot be regarded as relating to a computer program per se or a set of rules of procedure like algorithms and thus are not objectionable from the point of view of patentability, more so when the claims do not claim, or contain any algorithm or its set of rules as such, but only comprise of some process steps to carry out a technical process or achieve a technical effect finally the maximum power output by controlling the wind turbine. Hence the objection that invention is not patentable under section 3(k) fails or not valid.”

skyTran and story of inventor Doug Malewicki

skyTran is in news with Google Chairman Eric Schmidt investing with his venture fund Innovation Endeavors.

History of skyTran: In 1991, Doug Malewicki, a California Aerospace Engineer, conceived of SkyTran, a personal rapid transit, magnetic levitation system that would address increasing congestion, pollution, and energy security challenges. A decade latter, a meeting was held in 2002, hosted by John Kroft, PE, a Seattle engineer, that included John Cole, PE, Doug Malewicki, PE, J. Lee Wamble, PE and Dr. R. Paul Williamson. Following this meeting, the oversight company, Unimodal, was formed and incorporated in Montana to develop SkyTran. With the leadership of Sen. Max Baucus, a grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation, Research Innovation & Technology Administration, was secured by the University of Montana. This funding supported the further development of SkyTran as a hydrogen-powered, magnetic levitation personal rapid transit system. Research and partnership collaborations with Unimodal were established in strategic locations including Los Angeles, NASA Ames in Mountain View, CA, and Seattle, WA, with central component assembly laboratory located in Missoula, MT.

More fascinating is story of prolific inventor Doug Malewicki : He is an engineer with BS in Aeronautical & Astronautical Engineering, from University of Illinois,  MS Aeronautical & Astronautical Engineering from Stanford University.  Mr. Malewicki is also a skilled craftsman who understands machining, welding, advanced composites manufacturing, plastic injection molding, etc. He understands what can and can't be built and the economics involved in applying these technologies.Malewicki gained a lot of insight into assembly line production and the cost benefits of automation while working as Manager of Advanced R&D at L. M. Cox Manufacturing (1970-1975), as Chief Designer at Chad Industries (1978 -1979), as VP of Engineering at Industrial Support Solutions (1993-1995).

His patent: Passenger transportation system for self-guided vehicles

5th International Invention Festival on October 3 to 5 in Tehran

Azad University of Central Tehran Branch  under the sponsorship of IFIA is organising the 5th International Invention Festival, from 3rd to 5th Octobet in Tehran. It is an outstanding opportunity for exchanging experience and ideas between inventors, innovators and commercializing bodies while introducing high-tech invention in various fields of science and technology. 
Indian Innovators interested in participation may contact Indian Innovators Association.

Microsoft refused to pay royalty of 2.25% on final product price for standard essential patents to Motorola

Both Motorola and Microsoft are members of the standard setting organisations Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers ("IEEE") and the International Telecommunication Union ("ITU"). Motorola owns numerous patents that are essential to the IEEE 802.11 wireless local area network ("WLAN") Standard ("802.11 Standard") and the ITU H.264 advanced video coding technology standard ("H.264 Standard").On October 21 and 29, 2010 Motorola sent letters to Microsoft offering to license its standards-essential patents (SEP) for the 802.11 Standard and H.264 Standard. The offer asked for a 2.25% royalty rate on the price of all end products Microsoft sold utilizing the technologies protected by these patents. Microsoft regarded these terms as blatantly unreasonable and responded by filing a breach of contract case against Motorola in the Western District Court of Washington, claiming that Motorola had violated its agreement with the IEEE and ITU to provide reasonable and non-discriminatory terms of licensing to all potential licensees on a global scale.

Read the court judgement.

CSIR-TKDL misleading with its claim that they stopped an European patent -on a medicinal composition containing turmeric, pine bark and green tea for treating hair loss.

Ministry of Science & Technology, Government of India issued a press statement with title`India Foils UK Company’s Bid to Patent Use of Turmeric, Pine Bark & Tea for Treating Hair Loss'. The Indian press dutifully carried this news item as yet another instance of crooked white man stealing Indian traditional knowledge. And few in India analysed the European patent claims to check this claim of CSIR-TKDL.
Darren Smyth in his blog IPKat traced the patent in dispute and anaysed the claim(s) in detail. The conclusion:

• Caim 1 is achieving an electrostatic effect in the interaction of hair building solids with hair and there is no reference to turmeric, pine bark and green tea.
• About the third party observations, it was stated:The comments developed in this [the third party observations] filing concern mainly the subject-matter of original claims 10, 11 and 12, which relate to the introduction of pharmacologically active ingredients. The third-party observation has been taken into account.
• From this it can be seen that they played no part in the examination at all.  The examination report was not responded to, and the application has now lapsed.
• So the statement by the Indian Ministry of Science and Technology is pretty much untrue - there was not in any real sense an attempt to "patent" use of "turmeric, pine bark and green tea for treating hair loss", and nothing that the TKDL did had any influence on the examination so India has not "foiled" the attempt to get a patent anyway.  Any announcement is in any case premature, since the applicant can still file a response and revive the application using "further processing" up to 9 September 2015.

The 28 day innovation program- Scott D Anthony

In his book ` The little black book of innovation' consultant  Scott Anthony brings insights from Innosight and prescribes a 28 day journey . Week end summery of program:

• First week - discover opportunities for innovation.
• Second week -blueprint an innovative idea.
•  third week-Assess and test your innovative idea.
• Fourth week- Move forward in the journey.

Some interesting concepts:
Selective scarcity- where you place limits on three factors ( time, boundary limits, team number)  whose abundance can crush innovation,
Sucking sound of core- the more a company focuses on what it perceives as it core competence,the more it risks running into `sucking sound of core'. So create a blueprint of what you should borrow and what core capability you absolutely must forget.

And many tips from the practitioner, rich with examples from India and other Asian countries.

Indian Naval Indigenisation Plan (INIP 2015-30)

Mr Manohar Parrikar, hon'ble Raksha Mantri released 15 year Indian Naval Indigenisation Plan (INIP 2015-30) on 16 July 2015 during a CII-Indian Navy Seminar in New Delhi. 

This document supersedes the Indigenisation Plan published in 2008 for the period 2008-2022.

This document is aimed to enable indigenous development of equipment and systems over the next 15 years. It attempts to formulate the requirements of Indian Navy and lists out the equipment which can be taken up for indigenisation in the coming years. It is expected that release of this plan would further synergise Indian Navy’s relationship with the industry and encourage all sectors of industry to come forward and participate in indigenous development of weapons, sensors and other high end equipment for the Indian Navy, thereby making the nation self-reliant in this vital domain of defence technology.

Download the  document

STANFORD BIODESIGN INNOVATION FELLOWSHIP 2016-17

The Biodesign Innovation Fellowship teaches a proven, hands-on, project-based approach to identifying important unmet medical needs, developing innovative diagnostic, device, or other medical technology (medtech) interventions to address them, and preparing to bring those products into patient care through start-up, corporate, or other implementation channels.

Applications for 2016-17 are due on August 31, 2015. 

From Week: With 100 innovators trained till now, the programme has resulted in eight startups; one device is already in the market and another one is with the US FDA for approval. Bhargava says the opportunity to develop medical devices in India is immense as 80 per cent of all medical devices used in the country are imported. The focus of the programme is on frugal innovation―to create inexpensive devices without compromising on quality. “The devices are not reengineered devices from outside, but brand new devices with their own patents, which can also be deployed in the west as it is not infringing on anyone’s patents,” he says. Last December, AIIMS, along with BMJ, launched a new journal―BMJ Innovations―giving information on breakthroughs in medical devices, diagnostics and assist devices.