IP Protection of Seeds: Technology Enters Indian Market

IP protection of seeds is an innovative technology and is one of its kind, which enables seed, grain, and other bulk commodities to be identified accurately and cost effectively right down to an individual batch number. This provides both detection of counterfeit target commodities, and a control mechanism for internal or cross border end-to-end supply chain management.
2 kinds of technologies are available:
Visual Protection of Seeds: Small dots, with the specific text, can be embarked on the seeds by means of special and dedicated equipment and protocols. The dots (<0.2mm) can be checked easily with a potable microscope.
Non Visible Protection of Seeds: Markers can be imprinted on the seeds by means of coating equipment or protocols. Special coating can be read with a special reader to read out a generic code or company specific code. Tracer/ marker can even be picked up/ read from left-over seed skin, various weeks after planting. Thus, Seed Companies can trace their seed material even in the fields many days after sowing also.
This Technology offers following advantages:
• Better and tamper proof protection of seeds
• Prevents counterfeiting, product diversion, false warranty claims etc
• 100 % Proof of ownership
• General Batch ID on seeds
• Tractability in the soil
• Forensic proof of origin
• Confidence and reliability
• GMO Supportive (possibility to trace commodities with and without GMO)
• Cross border control, trace the product in several regions, countries
• Multilayer and Multiple key technology

Similarly, IP protection on packaging material can also be done with visible and cover protected labels. The advantage is that, the code is even traceable when the label is removed. Also, the labels cannot be removed without visually damaging of the labels; the labels can be made with the logo of the Proprietor Company or any other specific text.
In 2010, during summer season, farmers of A.P. raised the concern and protested against spurious seeds that had flooded the market, this protest had prompted state government to detect and seize the spurious seed marketed by some companies. Thereby to solve such IP based issues,this technology can prove to be a rescuer. This technology (identification and authentication technology) has been adopted by Hyderabad based Seed works India Pvt. Ltd.

IBM owns maximum US patents in 2010

IBM Corp. topped the list of U.S. patent winners in 2010 for the 18th year in a row, IBM inventors were granted 5,896 patents during the year 2010, followed by Samsung Electronics Co., with 4,551 patents.

List of top 10 Companies with maximum 
U.S. patents awarded in the year 2010:

1. IBM Corp. (5,896)
2. Samsung Electronics Co. (4,551)
3. Microsoft Corp. (3,094)
4. Canon Inc. (2,552)
5. Panasonic Corp. (2,482)
6. Toshiba Corp. (2,246)
7. Sony Corp. (2,150)
8. Intel Corp. (1,653)
9. LG Electronics (1,490)
10. Hewlett-Packard Co. (1,480)

IBM's patents were generated in 2010 by more than 7,000 inventors in 46 states and 29countries working under an annual budget of about $6 billion.

Among the patents IBM won in 2010 were those for:
- A method for gathering, analyzing and processing patient information from multiple data sources to provide more effective diagnoses of medical conditions
- A system for predicting traffic conditions based on information exchanged over short-range wireless communications
- A technique that analyzes data from sensors in computer hard drives to enable faster emergency response in the event of earthquakes and other disasters
- Technology that lets computer chips to communicate using pulses of light instead of electrical signals, which could help computers work faster.

http://www.statesman.com/business/ibm-holds-on-to-title-for-winning-patents-1176826.html

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9KLLGRO2.htm

IP: Innovative Tool for Gaining Publicity

Every now and then we get to know that upcoming movie has been a case of IP controversy. I always wonder, why the launch of the new movie is never delayed or obstructed because of this. All of them release well on time and most of the times get huge success, as it is evident in case of 3 Idiots and Dabang. Now, recently Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s, Hritik and Aishwarya starrer “Guzarish” has come into picture for infringing the Copyrights of Dayanand Raajans, whose novel’s theme and characters are supposed to be lifted for the movie. Just before the release or on the release of a movie such controversies pop up and we keep on following the news that what will happen now? But, after few days for almost all the cases there is never an interesting conclusion, they simply opt for out of court settlement (Zandu balm Case against Arbaz Khan). In this case it has been reported that the sales of Zandu Balm got a reasonably good hike after this controversy, which they can never achieve through traditional marketing strategies and the movie “Dabang” plus the song “Munni Badnam” got a good popularity as well.

I get puzzled sometimes that all these disputes are fashioned just for publicity or people are really concerned for protecting their Intellectual Property. Whatever the reason may be, keeping aside the publicity stunts, I am delighted because it is creating awareness about the IP issues amongst the common man. Thanks to media that despite highlighting all the time “Breaking News on Rakhi Sawant”, they sometimes bring these critical issues into notice and people are now becoming more educated on how to protect their intellectual assets.

Managing Ownership Issues of IP Assets

Dear Friends,
As we all are working in different domains of the IP Industry. We should be aware of the ownership issues that may pop us in front of us. I found this presentation relevant and worth sharing with you all. I hope you will like it. Please follow the link enclosed with the title.

Off shoring IP Services: India to be the first choice...

Outsourcing is now a days serving as a cost saving and effective strategy to almost all the industries being it Call Centre Industry, Legal Service Industry, Research and Analysis Industry, Health care, Banking and Financial Industry, Software and IT Industry, Data and Document Management Industry.
The recent studies reveals that as compared to other industries Legal Service Industry has gained a very high momentum. Amongst legal outsourcing, IP has gained utmost attention. India has always been valued for the talent pool and now being recognized by the Developed Countries as the hub for rendering IP and research services.
Trends reveal that total revenue generation from patent off shoring industry were about $ 46 million dollars for the year 2007 and is expected to reach to a level of $ 206 million by the year 2012. This data shows a multi folds rise in the revenue generation. This concept is considered to be at a very rudimentary stage in India and is only 3-4 years old. By end of the year 2007, there were only around 50 companies providing these services with the head count of around 1,550. The Indian IP off shoring industry is expected to rise by 35% for the next 4 years.
There is a huge potential for Indian investors to develop such capabilities and capture the market from all over the world, subsequently India can rise as a "Superpower" in the field of IP. Also, there are immense opportunities for the IP professionals like us to flourish.

Information Sources in Patents - a book review

Technology explosion in the last two centuries has brought about radical changes in the way we live, interact and conduct our business. Efforts towards channeling these developments have become a discipline in its own regard and this task became more structured when the human race moved in to the information age. The macroscopic analysis of patent data has taken our understanding to an altogether new level with the synergy it derived from the advent of information technology. Patent Informatics, a spin off, which has evolved as a result of developments in the way we handle information and because of our enhanced data processing skills has become pivotal in today’s technology development and management. Even now, there are relatively few guides and manuals which cater to the needs of various stake holders like patent information analysts, business managers, policy analysts, researchers, technology managers and students, in understanding and exploring the available patent information sources. Individual databases hosted by public and private organizations always provide the necessary functional and technical information necessary for using their databases to our advantage in the form of user manuals. However, it may not be that easy to actually maintain a host of these manuals because of the vast pool of databases that are in vogue. Stephen Adams attempted to address these problems in his guide titled Information Sources in Patents. This book comes to our rescue at a right time where we are overwhelmed with information and lost in the complex yet amazing world of patents.

The book is divided in to two parts with the first half dealing with the patent processes and documentation and the second half dealing with the databases and search techniques. The first five chapters makes up the first part and the next seven chapters makes up the rest and at the end a separate chapter is dedicated to throw some light on the future developments that are likely to take place in the areas of patent systems and patent searching.

As students of Intellectual Property & Technology Management (Agriculture), we take up courses which are centered on developing search strategies, conducting FTO analysis and infringement analysis. This guide on information sources in patents is well tailored to suit our academic and research needs. This book definitely is a master piece as it serves the purpose of a sign post offering the right direction for extracting the information from the growing patent data mines. It is a holistic book, which is as much helpful to a beginner as it is to an experienced professional patent search specialist.