Newsletter (IP Convergence)

Issue: Jul 2009

PRESS ROOM

Microsoft’s promise to community
Microsoft has made a ‘unilateral, irrevocable and legally binding’ Community Promise to not exert its patents against anyone for making, using, selling, offering for sale, importing or distributing any of its covered specifications/implementations. It is not required to sign any license agreement or communicate the usage to Microsoft to come under the ambit of this community promise. The promise extends to patents required to generate implementations including open-source licensing models such as Mono, LGPL or GPL. This, added to its latest code contribution to Apache Foundation has indeed made users believe that Microsoft might be warming up to the idea of open source software and the incentives of cross-platform programming though some Linux distributors remain skeptical.

‘Pay to Delay’ deals slammed by the US Justice Department
TiVo Inc. filed an infringement suit against Dish Network Corp. and EchoStar Corp. for infringement of its patents relating to video recording. The Court held that Dish Network and EchoStar were liable for patent infringement and granted damages to the tune of 192.7 million dollars. The ruling requires Dish Network to stop its video recording services without acquiring a license from Tivo.

Patent Pool for Neglected Tropical Diseases
GlaxoSmithKline in March 2009 established a patent pool to facilitate research in finding new cure for 16 neglected tropical diseases (NTD) identified by the FDA like tuberculosis, malaria, cholera, dengue leprosy, etc. that are prevalent in least developed countries. Alnylam Pharmaceuticals is the first company that has come forth to add about 1500 RNAi technology patents (granted and pending) to it. RNA interference (RNAi) is a cutting edge technology that enables gene silencing i.e. avoiding the formation of disease causing proteins altogether. This addition has tripled the patent pool’s strength and is expected to help identify new targets and therapies for NTD’s.

Patent Pool for HIV Medicines
UNITAID launched by WHO in 2006 aims to achieve price reductions in HIV medicines in developing countries. It has initiated the establishment of a common Patent Pool to cross license patents for HIV medicines. A neutral licensing agency is proposed to manage the pricing and discussion of terms to avoid the otherwise lengthy procedures. The primary objective will be to make novel antiretroviral medication available and also reduce the costs of already existing ones. Indian, Thai and Bangladeshi pharmaceutical giants were involved in discussions on 23rdJune, 2009 hosted by the South East Asian Office of WHO and they encouraged the initiative.

Changes at the IPO effective from 1 st July, 2009

Submission of documents and fee up to 5 p.m. for all patent offices. No documents will be received after 5 p.m. as the automated software will not allow the entry on the same date.
Two separate counters called the FC (Fee counter) and the NFC (Non-Fee Counter) at all patent offices. The documents should be submitted to the appropriate counter.
No hard copy submission of new patent application. Form 1 to be submitted in hard copy.
Abstracts should be conformity of section 10 (4) (d) and Rule 13 (7) of the Patent Act otherwise the application will not go for publication i.e. following should be kept in mind for the abstract:

Abstract should commence with the Title
Technical field to be indicated in the Abstract
Technical problem to which the invention relates
Solution to the problem through the invention.
Chemical formula where relevant.
Maximum 150 words
Representative drawing to be mentioned.

In case of General Power of attorney a self attested copy of the POA has to be filed.
In case of incomplete applications an invitation to fulfill the requirements within 3 months will be sent by the patent office. The application will be withheld for publication and publication might be delayed because of the deficiency notice.
The examiners have to send the examination report to the controller within 1 month of the referral made by the controller to the examiner for the relevant application. (We can hope to receive the examination reports faster J )
All the communication to be sent electronically and the original specification and drawings will not be returned any more. Only those pages will be indicated where the changes/amendments are required.
A patent journal shall be published on every Friday before 6 p.m. and shall be uploaded the same day on the IPO website.
Documents relating to patent applications received in the office by email/fax shall be sent to the non fee counter. This means the non fee documents can be sent by fax also which was not permitted earlier.

Microsoft and Paltalk settle
Paltalk filed a patent infringement suit against Microsoft alleging violation of patents relating to deployment of interactive applications over hosted networks and group messaging servers. The patents may be applied to video games, video conferences and so on. The parties have settled the infringement suit through a license agreement. Under the license agreement, Microsoft has agreed to take a license over the patents for a royalty.