TCL launches new website – Human Touch of Chemistry

Chemistry is going to be a lot more fun, as Tata Chemicals reaches out to Young India, through the launch of an interactive portal for the kids The Human Touch of Chemistry.

TCL has launched www.humantouchofchemistry.com at a formal function held at the Marriot, Mumbai to release the Dun & Bradstreet Publication ‘Indian Chemical Industry’.

Based on ‘Chemicals are Good, Chemistry is Fun’, Tata Chemicals have conceptualized a portal targeted at school students. The content has been specially selected to inculcate a love for chemistry and add on to the knowledge that students are already imparted through school curriculum.  The website includes information spanning different topics including environmental issues like climate change, explanation of how chemicals react and why, naturally occurring chemical compounds, indispensible use of certain chemicals etc.

What’s the carbon footprint of your handwash?

Reproduced from cnet news. Start-up Planet Metrics is developing software that could give consumers a better read on the embedded energy of everyday products.

The San Francisco-based company on Tuesday released the beta test version of its hosted application, which it calls Rapid Carbon Modeling. It also said Method, which makes eco-friendly home-cleaning products, is a customer.

There are a number of companies writing software for calculating how much energy is linked to a business’ operations and managing carbon emissions. Planet Metrics’ software is geared at manufacturers and makers of consumer packaged goods.

Using Planet Metrics’ software, a person could, for example, see how much energy consumption is associated with procuring the components that make up a cell phone. With that information, a company can then look for ways to cut energy consumption, such as reducing waste or finding another supplier.

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The Elephant in the Room

Intellectual Asset Management has published the article “The Elephant in the Room” by Opperman, Craig P. The article focuses the skyrocketing cost and bloated patent portfolio of American Corporate, Low quality, Marginal relevance, and the process to overcome the same issue e.g. File far fewer applications, clean out that Junk and changing the culture of patenting the all.

Following is the excerpt cited from the article – Fundamentally, patents are assets. Their primary purpose is to protect the innovations underpinning company business. They should be able to function as barriers to entry, withstand competitor scrutiny and, if needs be, survive the rigours of a multimillion-dollar lawsuit. In theory, patents should be robust and valuable assets. In practice, however, the numbers suggest that today’s US patent portfolios, while not quite toxic, are performing poorly.

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Abbott Loses Drug Patent Suit with Centocor

Cited from NewYork Times. A unit of Johnson & Johnson said Monday that a jury has ordered Abbott Laboratories to pay $1.67 billion in a patent infringement suit over rheumatoid arthritis drugs.

Abbott’s best-selling drug, Humira, competes with the drug Remicade, an arthritis treatment made by the Centocor unit of Johnson & Johnson. That company and New York University filed a federal patent infringement suit against Abbott in April 2007 in the Eastern District of Texas.

The product belongs to a class of drugs known as anti-TNF, which block tumor necrosis factor proteins in the blood. When present in excessive amounts, TNF can cause inflammation.

“We are particularly gratified that the jury recognized our valuable intellectual property, finding our patent both valid and infringed,” Kim Taylor, president of Centocor Ortho Biotech, said in a statement. Humira has been a major success for Abbott, which has been approved for uses psoriasis and Crohn’s disease. Abbott had $4.5 billion in Humira sales in 2008.

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Australia – Innovation Patent

The Australia has a separate Patent protection apart from regular utility Patent termed “Innovation patent”, is a protection option specifically designed to protect inventions that do not meet the inventive threshold required for standard patents. Introduced in 2001 to stimulate innovation among small to medium business and local industry, the innovation patent is a relatively fast way to obtain protection for your new device, substance, method or process.

Innovation patents are intended to provide intellectual property rights for those incremental and lower level inventions that would not be sufficiently inventive to qualify for a standard patent. This is due to the inventive threshold being lowered compared to a standard patent, that is, the innovation patent requires an innovative step rather than an inventive step.

An innovation patent doesn’t allow you to legally stop others from copying your innovation unless you have your innovation patent examined. Examination of an innovation patent will only occur if requested by the patentee, a third party or the commissioner of patents. An innovation patent is only legally enforceable and certified if it has been examined by IP Australia and has met the requirements of the Patents Act.

Monsanto sues DuPont over patent

The data is reproduced from the St. Louis Business Journal. Monsanto Co. has sued DuPont to prevent what it calls “unlawful use” of Monsanto’s herbicide-tolerant technologies in soybeans and corn.

DuPont subsidiary, Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc., recently admitted that its technology “presents unacceptable risks to farmers,” Monsanto said.

In an effort to repair these deficiencies, Pioneer is “misusing” Monsanto’s Roundup Ready trait “to mask problems” with Pioneer’s technology, Monsanto said.

“As the saying goes, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,” said Monsanto Chief Executive Officer Hugh Grant in a statement. “However, unlawfully taking technology is neither imitation nor flattery; it is unethical and wrong. A true technology company respects patents and its contractual agreements and delivers new products through its own innovation and honest collaboration. DuPont has failed on all counts.”

DuPont says Monsanto engages in “anti-competitive” conduct.

James Borel, DuPont group vice president, said the suit “incorrectly” claims that DuPont may not combine, or stack, its technology with any soybeans already containing Monsanto’s Roundup Ready trait.

In 2008, the U.S. Department of Justice required that Monsanto abandon similar “stacking” restrictions it imposed on its licensees producing Roundup Ready cottonseed as a condition to its acquisition of cotton seed company Delta & Pine Land, according to Borel.

“Monsanto has a long history of using litigation and aggressive tactics to preserve their monopoly and attempt to intimidate customers, seed partners and competitors,” he said in a statement.

Intellogist, New Patent Information Resource Tool

Landon IP has launched a web page Intellogist, a free online tool that provides the intellectual property (IP) community with a revolutionary resource for finding objective information about patent searching tools and sharing best practices. Intellogist provides the informaton about

·        Search System Reports: See detailed information on search systems

·        Best Practices in Prior Art Searching: Collaborate on best practices for prior art searching

·        Quick Table Comparisons: Quickly compare patent search systems

·        Resource Finder: Find prior art resources by technical field

·        Interactive Patent Coverage Map: Find patent search systems by clicking on a map

The website is also having the detailed comparison of database scope, features, and limitations of following patent search databases:

·        Delphion

·        EAST

·        Esp@cenet

·        FreePatentsOnline

·        Google Patent Search

·        MicroPatent PatentWeb

·        PatAnalyst

·        PatBase

·        PatBase Express

·        Patent Analysis Search System

·        Patent Lens

·        QPAT

·        Qweb

·        SumoBrain

·        SureChem

·        Surf-IP

·        Thomson Innovation

·        TotalPatent

·        WIPS Global

India’s Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL): A powerful tool for patent examiners

Data is reproduced from EPO website. On 2 February 2009 the Indian government granted access to its Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL), a unique database that houses the country’s traditional medical wisdom, to examiners at the European Patent Office (EPO).

EPO examiners will use the extensive database to prevent attempts at patenting existing traditional knowledge, a practice described as “bio-piracy”.

The co-operation between India and the EPO comes at a time when many countries are struggling to protect traditional and respected knowledge against exploitation, primarily in the pharmaceutical sector….

A unique encyclopaedia: The TKDL is the result of a US$ 2 million joint project between five Indian government organisations, including the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the National Institute of Science Communication and Informative Resources (NISCAIR).

Under the direction of Vinod Kumar Gupta, the head of NISCAIR, more than 150 experts in traditional medicine, law and computer science spent the past ten years arranging and classifying the TKDL.

Highlights of the vast database include:

§  54 authoritative textbooks on ayurvedic medicine

§  Nearly 150,000 ayurvedic, unani and siddha medicines

§  Over 1,500 physical exercises and postures in yoga, more than 5,000 years old.

Click here to read full article. 

IPVision Patent Analytics Tool

The IPVision Patent Analytics provides the patent data mining and mapping tool (Find the Trees – See the Forest™) which enables to analyze patent portfolios, technologies and innovations, provide new competitive intelligence insights, enable companies to align intellectual property management with strategic objectives. The Map Analysis Features highlight important data on the map such as:

·        Patent Cluster Maps™: show the patents grouped by the Selected Attribute- e.g., USTPO Class, By First Assignee, By First Named Inventor, or By Agent. This helps you investigate inventors, companies and technologies.

·        Patent Family Maps™: show applications (provisional and non-provisional), continuations, continuations-in-part, divisionals, abandoned applications and related international filings.

·        Visual Citation – Seminal Patents™: Which patents on the map are Seminal Patents – i.e., patents that have been cited by more than 20 other patents. In the Pro Version these patents are highlighted on the map.

·        Litigation Analysis™: Which patents on the Map have changed ownership?

·        Red Flag – Expired Patents Due to Non-Payment™: Highlighted patents have expired due to non-payment of USPTO maintenance fees, as per USPTO data.

·        Red Flag – Expired Patents Due to Non-Payment™: Highlighted patents have expired due to non-payment of USPTO maintenance fees, as per USPTO data.

·        Orphan Analysis™: Highlighted patents by color group are Orphan Patents and Cluster Patents that have common inventors.

The sample analysis is available at link: Find the Trees – See the Forest™ 

CLAUSES MAKE AGREEMENTS FLAWLESS-by CS. Monika Bhardwaj

I came across a nice article written by CS. Monika Bhardwaj and published on Goarticle.Com. The article is reproduced from the website.

CLAUSES MAKE AGREEMENTS FLAWLESS CS. Monika Bhardwaj, B.Com (Hons.), ACS

In common parlance the terms ‘Agreement’ and ‘Contract’ are used as synonyms. But in legal jargon, these two terms are not the same. Agreement is a vital element for a contract to become valid, but it’s not a contract in itself. The enforceability of an agreement makes it a Contract. It is said that, every Contract is an agreement, but every Agreement is not a contract.

In India, the entire law covering the concept of ‘Agreement’ is embodied in the Indian Contract Act, 1972. Commencing from our day-to-day life to the important decisions of the business world everybody is exposed to either one (express) or the other (implied) form of an Agreement; whether it’s an account opening form or a joint venture / technical collaboration; agreements touch life of every person.

However, in industry, drafting an Agreement is crucial task and extreme caution is required so as to protect the interest of the concerned entity. Increasing business activities makes it imperative to carefully draft or vet an agreement since this is the stage where potential disputes can be avoided and course of actions can be framed or freezed.

The art of drafting in India has developed without the aid of formalized structure of legislation; instead, it is totally based on legal traditions. Of late, India has immensely benefited by exchanging the drafting techniques with the rest of the world. Each type of agreement has some peculiar clauses, which need extra caution and care.

The purpose of this Article is to highlight the importance of drafting an agreement vis-à-vis few important clauses in an agreement. This article shall focus on drafting the general commercial agreements. Here in this article the term ‘Agreement’ is used as a synonym of the term ‘Contract’.

Indemnity

Almost all commercial agreements have an indemnity clause, wherein one party agrees to indemnify the other from the losses / damages caused by its own acts. Such clauses are inevitable and need to be capped. Further, amount of risk involved in the indemnification needs to be compared with the benefits to be derived out of the business relationship. Indemnification for exemplary, consequential, indirect and incidental damages should be avoided. In view of the risk involved, these clauses need careful drafting. Root cause analysis is required for the existence of such clauses. If not required in a particular situation, such clauses should be avoided.

Jurisdiction

‘Jurisdiction’ determines which Court should properly adjudicate a case / dispute i.e. Competent Court. Jurisdiction means the authority to govern or legislate and such authority is derived out of the subject, type or cause of action. The clause excluding one out of two competent courts should not be against the public policy. The contract ousting the jurisdiction of the Indian courts, however, the Indian courts was not without jurisdiction. It was held that the agreement ousting the jurisdiction was void as it was opposed to the public policy [Rajendra Sethia vs. Punjab National Bank (AIR 1991 Delhi 285)]. That means, if a court in India has jurisdiction to entertain the suit and in agreement it is specifically agreed that any dispute between the parties will be submitted to a Foreign Court. Being opposed to public policy, such clause would be void. The plea that party agreed to submit to the Foreign Court will not up held. This can be considered for stay of a suit but cannot be a ground for rejection of a plaint.

Arbitration

Of late, the number of disputes in the industry has increased tremendously. Initially, the principal burden was on Courts that have traditionally captured the majority of such disputes. In an attempt to control litigation costs and expediting the process of dispute resolution, many companies are looking to employ alternate dispute resolution mechanisms commonly referred to as ADR — to avoid the lengthy court procedures. Two of the most commonly used ADR mechanisms are ‘mediation and arbitration’. Mediation is a voluntary process through which the parties meet and try to negotiate a resolution to their dispute by referring to a third-party facilitator. Arbitration is a process that results in a binding decision that the parties can seek to enforce through the courts. Arbitration through a single arbitrator, mutually appointed by the parties, is a cost effective and speedy way for dispute resolution. Generally companies seek mediation and if they fail, they prefer to refer the dispute to Arbitration. Therefore Arbitration clause is very must.

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