The Dolcera Blog

Ranking makes life easier. Be it top 10 companies, top 10 universities to study technology or to choose amongst top 10 sci-fi movies you want to watch on the weekends; ranking allow us to choose the best amongst the available. Time saver, decision influencer and extremely helpful are the ranked material.

At Dolcera, we thought of applying the ranking methodology to patents. We have ranked patents based on a variety of parameters. First factor amongst all remains the client focus, second, sufficiency of disclosed information in patents and third credibility of a patent to perform the same process/art with higher efficiency than any other patent with similar focus.

Let us consider an example, the first table in the image below show patents with similar focus of decreasing tumor volume using RNA interference (RNAi). The patent one has disclosed maximum information in this area and in addition to the desired data, it has also published a lot more supporting information derived from other experiments. Further, as the rank goes down the percentage decrease in tumor volume decreases. Some may argue that patent 2 has disclosed more decrease in tumor volume than patent 1 but then patent 1 has disclosed more supporting data, taking its overall weighted score higher. Of course, if the client is still interested only in comparing tumor volume, patent at rank 2 will come at rank 1. Hence the ranking is customized to suit the client requirements.

The ranking of patents is not that simple as it may sound. The analysis team has to encounter challenges and figure out the ways to overcome them. Graphs, charts, instrumental outputs etc. will not give you data in percentages which can be just copy-pasted to compare. They have to be calculated first using mathematical tools which may vary from calculating areas under the graphs or applying differentiation & integration on instrumental outputs, to allow the reader to compare results before making the final decision. It’s considered an absolute value add to the decision making process by the clients who have sought such a service from us.

Not all experimental data will be quantitative. For people familiar with biotechnology would know that there are experiments (such as gel electrophoresis, staining etc.) that give qualitative or quasi-quantitative results. I am sure, the same will hold true with other technology fields too. Second part of the figure above summarizes few patents which can not be ranked as there is no data yield from such experiments and hence comparison is not possible. But then why miss them? We provide a Dolcera summary table which will give reader an idea as these experiments were atleast conducted and disclosed in patents. This comparison will thus strengthen the decision to be taken from ranking matrices discussed above.

This systemic approach of collecting, sorting, analyzing, and finally ranking the data has the following advantages:

1. Saves time!
2. Easy comparative analysis.
3. Helps in competitive watch
4. Decision on in-and-out licensing can be made.
5. Strong baseline for future scientific investigations.

Who will be benefited?

Scientific community: Extensive experimental data, comparison matrix of data from different patents with same focus is a feast to researchers and scientists as it helps them to choose best technologies.

Patent attorneys: Allows competitor watch, supports their decision on in and out licensing.

Venture capitalists / investors: Patent ranking based on disclosed information helps investors to decide patents to further invest upon.

Which technology fields are covered?

Patents in all the technological fields can be ranked. You just need to tell us the focus area and we will rank the patents for you. The ranking and weighing scores can be customized to suit user’s requirements.

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The results of PG diploma (2008-2009), a course offered by NALSAR - Hyderabad in patent laws, was declared today. With 100 % passing percentage the environment in office was jubilating.What else could be better Diwali gift than this, said the cheered Dolcerians?

Dolcera is first to report online analysis of passing percentage this year. The graph below reflects the trend of how students all over India performed in the exam.

Click here to download the result sheet.

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The US India IP conclave on Information technology organized at Taj Krishna, Hyderabad started on a low note with the news of death of YS Rajasekhara Reddy, Chief Minister Andhra Pradesh in helicopter crash on 3rd September 2009.
The two days event organized by CII (confederation of Indian Industry) in association with USPTO Global Intellectual Property academy soon started to blaze as reputed panelist, both Indian bureaucrats and members of US embassy started addressing the audience. Welcome address was given by Shakti Sagar, Vice Chairman CII_AP & MD ADP Inida Pvt LTd. Theme address was given by Dominic Keating, IPR Attaché where he applauded Indian IT industries for their contributions to Indian economy. He mentioned that IT business has grown from 150 million US $ in 1991 to 50 billion US$ in 2007 and is further expected to rise to 900 billion US $ by 2020. Hyderabad alone exports IT worth 163 billion US $ and has shown a growth of 323% from year 2002.

GS Ragahavender, Registrar of copyrights, Copyright office, Government of India in his key note address discussed about legislation, management and enforcement as three pillars to assure working of IP laws. Cornelis M Keur, Consul General, US Consulate admired Andhra Pradesh as third state after Maharashtra and Gujarat in terms of growth in Economy. Concluding remarks of the inaugural session was given by Dr. S Chakravarthy, IAS(R), Advisor-APTDC.

Soon after a short coffee break the conference resumed on special plenary: The digital dilemma: Intellectual property in the information age. Dr. A Garg, Director-IPR department of Information technology, Govt of India emphasized that SMEs (small and medium enterprises) has to play a leading role in innovation. Incubation parks, multiplier grand scheme, SIP-EIT (support international patent protection in electronics and IT) have been started by government to support innovation. Under SIP-EIT, a financial support of upto 50% of total patent processing cost including Attorney’s fees, patent office filling fees, examination fees, patent search cost and additional cost for entering national phase up to grant/issue will be given. The support will be in the form of reimbursement of expenses in actual to the applicant. Support will however be limited to Rs. 15 lakhs or 50% if the total incurred on filling each invention, whichever is less.

Prof M Sridhar Acharyulu, MHRD IP chair professior, NALSAR, Jennie Ness, Regional Inteleecual propery Attaché for South east Asia US embassy Bangkok and Madhukar Sinha, Prof-IPR, center for WTO studies, IIFT shared their knowledge on various dilemmas to be confront in the rapidly growing age of IT.

Third session on strategies for protection of incremental innovation and patentability of software: challenges for IT/software industry started after high-lunch. The session was mainly headed by corporate professionals enlightening on Indian, US and European laws on software patenting and copyrights. BLV Rao, VP- corporate affairs, Infotech enterprise Ltd initiated the session with a focus on incremental innovations. Dawn Jos, Pat Engg-Asia, Texas instrument was next speaker in the session. Himanshu Goswami, IP attorney, Microsoft India and Santanu Mukherjee, lead-IPR attorney, Qualcomm India discussed intrinsic details on IT and Indian patent article 3 (k), European article 52 (2), 52 (3) and US laws on software patenting.

Dominic Keating unfolded the legalities of patenting software and business methods in US. Anil Sharma, Knowledge scientist Dolcera took the stage and discussed one of the most talked about cases in US, “In re Bilski & its implications on software patents.” The presentation kindled interest amongst the audience from the word go. The talk showcased the research work that Dolcera had undertaken in collaboration with Medtronic in Bilski case and its impact on software, medical devices and pharma method patents.

The last session of the day was on open source software: who needs IP, was chaired by Venkatesh Hariharan, Director, corporate affairs, Redhat Asia-Pacific, Prof. KS Rajan, IIIT-Hyderabad and Pavan Duggal, leading advocate in the Supreme Court of India. The panelists presented their views on pros and cons of free software versus paid software in context of IP and public interest.

The conclave was a major success and big boost to the city of Hyderabad. The city being an IT hub and IPR industries and law firms already budding, conferences like such will enhance awareness amongst the professionals. Overall, the conclave was a great experience and CII - USPTO effort to increase IP awareness in India is definitely commendable.

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The discovery of RNA interference (RNAi) is one of the transforming events in biology. Gene silencing agents such as small interfering RNA (siRNA), micro RNA (miRNA) and small synthetic oligo-nucleotides (DNA, RNA or DNA-RNA complex) lead to target specific RNAi. We aim at building a one-stop comprehensive database of RNAi agents patented or described in scientific literature.Dolcera has provision to customize the database against the target gene suiting client’s requirement. Till now, RNAi agents against some of the important cancer target genes are updated to the database and the trial access is available on request. These genes include bcl2, myc (c-myc, n-myc), ras (k-ras, h-ras, n-ras), VEGF, STAT3 etc. RNAi agents can be extracted and added to the database based on client’s interest.

Dolcera RNAi database can prove helpful:

• For scientific community: RNAi agent sequences aligned to target genes, extensive experimental data and comparison matrix of data from different patents with same focus.  
• For patent attorneys: Competitor watch, assignee vs. number of publications graphs, timeline based on application and publication dates.
• For venture capitalists/ Investors: Patent ranking based on disclosed information, data useful for decision making.

Salient features of the database:

1. Interactive maps of taxonomy: 4 levels of in depth classification of patents and scientific literature allow both “bird’s-eye view” and “in-depth views” of technologies.
2. Patent and non patent dashboard: Grouping specific elements into more general categories is conceptually easier and cleaner than entertaining hundreds of specific elements separately. Dolcera dashboard has a friendly user interface. It groups the patents according to the taxonomy, patent numbers, publications and application dates at the click of a button.
3. Sequence Dashboard: The tool not only aligns all patented/ non patented siRNA/ miRNA sequences to the target gene but allow user to see the sequence related information on a simple click of the mouse.
4. Experimental matrix: Experimental data be it quantitative (eg. % inhibition of target mRNA expression) or qualitative (eg. gel blots) are compared amongst patent document with similar focuses. This allows users to compare literature with same focus. The ranking of documents can also be done based on scoring matrices, which allows user to read the most relevant patent first.

 For database related inquiries or free demo call us at, Phone: +1-650-269-7952 (US) and  +91-40-6451-0832 (India). You can also email us at info@dolcera.com

To read more about RNAi database click here

To visit Dolcera’s website and to explore more patent/ IP related services click here

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NOTE: Click on the graphs for enlarged view

1. The complete picture

In 2006 total number of application filled across the world were 1,764,633 which were 4.9% more than filled in 2005 (1,681,596).

There is 91% increase in patent filing from 1985 to 2006 and 67% increase from 1995 to 2006.

2. Top 10 patent filing countries

Japan remains the undisputed number 1 country filling maximum patents across the world. Number of filling has increased by 5.1% from 2000 (489,187) to 2006 (514,047).

USA is the top second country with an astonishing increase of 42.5% increase in patent filling from 2000 (274,317) to 2006 (390,815).

3. Top 11 patent filing offices

USPTO displaced Japan patent office from its number 1 position in 2000 to number 2 in 2006. While US showed a gigantic leap of 44% Japan came down by 2.6% during the same period.

China patent office was at number 3 and showed enormous increase in patent filing of 305% from 2000 to 2006. The neighbor country India (global number 11) also showed 188% increase in 1 year from 2005 to 2006.

4. Patent filing trend: Rise and Fall

Countries on RISE: China, USA, Netherlands, Switzerland and Republic of Korea
Countries on FALL: Japan, Russian Federation, Germany, France and United Kingdom

Compiled from World Patent Report: A Statistical Review (2008)

- Harit Mohan

Knowledge Scientist, Dolcera

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Continuing from the previosuly published study on India Close Second to China in Clinical trial registered to be conducted in Asia: A Dolcera Study, we analysed 4 other important Asian countries and the trend of clinical trials there, these were: Philippenes, Russian Federation, Korea and Japan. The numbers of trials, as registered with clinicaltrials.gov by companies all across the world were considered in both of these studies. 

1. Clinical trials in Asia on a rise (Part-II) 

As in the case of India and China (discussed in part-I of this study) Philippenes, Russian Federation, Korea and Japan also showed whopping growth in number of clinical trials registered to be taking place in these countries.

2. Growth curve for clinical trials in Asian countires (Part-II) 

As can be seen, number of clinical trials registered to be in Japan took a dip down in year 2005 which was  recovered in subsequent years. Also, number of clinical trials registered was found to be plateatued for the period between 2005 to 2007 for Russian Federation. Republic of Korea on the other hand has aggresively accelerated on this front keeping it at the top in this four nation clinical trials study.

- Harit Mohan, Dolcera

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A recent pre-marketing survey has shown that 6 out of every 10 companies surveyed are planning to skip changing to MS Windows 7. Windows 7 is scheduled to be launched on 22nd October this year. But the good news is, Windows 7 has better reviews than Windows Vista atelast!

Many of the companies rejected to switch to Windows 7 because it will cost them extra penny in recession period and they are unsure will their existing applications be compatible with Windows7.

The survey found about 60 percent of those surveyed have no plans to deploy Windows 7, 34 percent will deploy it by the end of 2010 and only 5.4 percent will deploy by year’s end.

This may turn out happy news for Google who are also planning to launch their OS, Google chrome by year 2010. Analysts have said that Google which will challenge to Microsoft’s decades-old dominance of computer operating systems and business applications will take years to get significant share of the market, but startups might be their way in.

However Microsoft’s Windows still dominates. It remains the operating system software for about 95 percent of PCs, with more than 950 million copies running worldwide. It may not turn out be a cake walk for Google but the consumers can hope that cake will get sweeter as Google rivals Microsoft in the battle for creating user friendly OS.

Edited from Reuters.

- Harit Mohan
Knowledge Scientist
Dolcera

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Clinical trials are conducted to allow safety and efficacy data to be collected for new drugs or devices. We did a comparative study for key Asian countries (India, China, Pakistan, Singapore and Sri Lanka) to better understand the trend of clinical trials in Asian countries. The numbers of trials, as registered with clinicaltrials.gov by companies all across the world were considered in this study.

1. India’s second largest pie share

India is close second to China (~41%) with 36% clinical trials being registered from 2002 to 2008, to be conducted in India. Singapore and Pakistan holds third and fourth position respectively in 5 nations comparison study. Sri Lanka has only 0.3% share in the pie.

2. Clinical trials in Asia on a rise

India has shown a whopping 463.33% growth from 2002 to 2008 in terms of clinical trials registered to be conducted in India. China follows close second with 365.56% rise in the same period. However, overall statistics showed that China remains number 1 for clinical trial destination amongst 5 countries.

3. Growth curve for clinical trials in top 3 Asian Countries

As apparent from our results India and China were head to head till the year 2006, following that China started getting lead from India. On the other hand, Singapore started losing to India and China following 2004.

Read Part-II of this study at : http://blogs.dolcera.com/blog/2009/07/21/clinical-tiral-in-asia-a-dolcera-study-part-ii/ 

- Harit Mohan
Knowledge Scientist
Dolcera

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The goal of this study was to find the patents published on Neem (Azadirachta indica) and its various compositions (utilizing Neem as an addivite with other chemicals or natural products) since January 2006 in India and the USA, and see if the Indian private and government sectors had woken up to the new age ‘land grab’ opportunities provided through patenting Neem. The second goal was then to drill down deep into the patents to find out the application areas covered.

Neem (Azadirachta indica) is a tree in the mahogany family Meliaceae. It is one of two species in the genus Azadirachta, and is native to India, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan growing in tropical and semi-tropical regions. In East Africa it is also known as Mwarobaini (Swahili), which means the tree of the 40, as it is said to treat 40 different diseases. Traditional uses of Neem 1. Neem acts as anti bacterial, anti parasitic, anti fungal, anti protozoal and anti viral thus helps in protection from all the microorganisms, which are always ready to invade in our body causing serious ailments. 2. Local application of neem powder or neem oil has miraculous results. As it is a famous anti microbial herb, it renders all the microorganisms inactive therefore helping in proper healing of wound without causing any infections and septic conditions. 3. Taking bath of neem leaves water is a very common sight in Indian homes that helps our body to counter mild infections, which our body might get in day-to-day activity. 4. Its tropical application makes us relieved from acne, eczema and even ringworms. 5. In skin related diseases, neem works as blessing of God on mankind. It has an action on almost every kind of skin disease thus making its indication in eradicating every kind of itch, rash, infection and allergy. 6. Neem water is extensively used in burn injuries, thus to protect them from any kind of infection and also promote healing. 7. Neem oil is extensively used in hair fall and early graying of hairs with very satisfying results. It also find its application in dandruff and in lice growth.. 8. Its local application on arthritic conditions like rheumatoid arthritis, gout, Osteoarthritis, lower back pain, and musculo skeletal pains is highly recommended with good results. Source

Dolcera Analysis

1. Top Assignees in India and US on Neem patents: We analyzed a total of 98 relevant patents published in India on Neem and 78 relevant patents published in US on Neem from 2006 to 27th June 2009.

Top Assignees Vs Number of Publications in India

Top Assignees Vs Number of Publications in US

A. One can observe from the above graph that CSIR is the leading assignee in both US and in India. It means that considerable research on Neem is being carried out by CSIR. B. In India, CSIR is being followed by Kalyani Chemicals, Indian council for agriculture result (ICAR), Godrej agrovet, Defense Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). C. In US, CSIR (India) remains the top filler followed by UOP LLC and Syngenta Corp protection Inc.

2. Applications of Neem on which Indian and US assignees filled patents: Next, we compared the Applications of neem for which the patents are sought in both US and India.

Indian assignees (Application area Vs. No. of patents)

US assignees (Application area Vs. No. of patents)

A. The major application of neem in most of the publication is on Pest control. B. Indian publication concentrates on the medicinal aspects of neem whereas US publications concentrates mostly on the insect repellant property of neem. C. Indian assignees have patented use of Neem for its medicinal benefits such as for wound healing, wound coating, diabetes, HIV/ Aids and skin care. D. US assignees looked more interested in the areas such as Biodesel production, fertilizers, dental formulations, food packaging, cosmetics and Pharmaceutical compositions.

3. Sector wise distribution for Indian patents on Neem We tried to find out the major contribution of various sectors in publishing patents on neem and found that individual Application of patents has major part in the distribution of publication on neem in India followed by the private sectors and then the government.

Sector wise distribution on Neem patenting in India

Neem patent in India are mostly held by individuals, 41.84% followed by private sectors, 31.63%. Government institutes lagged behind all and retain only 26.53% patents on India’s traditional asset, Neem.

4. Dolcera Conclusion Indians have always cherished their traditional knowledge, heritage and culture. Neem is one such heritage and an integral part of our socio-economical culture. From times immemorial Neem has found use as an intergradient in Indian culinary, as a medicine for cure of several allergies/diseases and in various religious ceremonies across the country. Time and again there has been a hue and cry to stop other countries from patenting this age old Indian knowledge of Neem. This study, is aimed to answer the key question Are Indians holding an upper hand, legally too, on Neem usage? Comparing the trend of patent filing in India and US between 2006 to June 2009, we can safely conclude that India as a whole has risen up to the expectations and has filled 98 patents on technology surrounding Neem. CSIR (India) played a key role here in India as well as in US to remain as top assignee in the terms of number of patent fillings on application of Neem. However, the complete picture can be alarming. Figure this, despite CSIR remaining as the top assignee, patents on Neem in India are mostly held by individuals (41.84%), followed by private sector, 31.63%. Government institutes (which included CSIR, DRDO, ICAR, IIHR etc) lagged behind all and retain only 26.53% of patents on India’s traditional asset. While Indians have used Neem for its medicinal benefits such as for wound healing, diabetes, HIV/ Aids and skin care; US assignees looked more interested in the areas such as Biodesel production, fertilizers, dental formulations, food packaging, pharmaceutical compositions etc. This study was aimed to gain in depth insight of patenting trends on Neem in India and US. Waking up to the cause, India has done well to broadly cover the Neem application areas but the efforts should increase exponentially to retain the legal rights on Neem, the gift of nature to India. - Lakshmikant Goenka MD, Dolcera AND -Anil Sharma Knowledge Scientist AND - Harit Mohan Knowledge Scientist DISCLAIMER: Above study was conducted using the Indian patent search database provided by the Indian patent office and Micropat. The study was a broad level search and we might have missed out on few patents. The analysis is prone to human errors and can have marginal errors. Dolcera holds all rights on this publication and it should not be used without the consent of authors and the company.

© Dolcera, All rights reserved, 2009

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