Arrival of 5G technology may ignite the Patent Fight

The first worldwide patent war (over smartphones) may be ignited with the advent of wireless technology as the sales of devices using 5G is forecast to grow to $668 billion globally in 2026 from $5.5 billion this year. The promise of converting a wide range of products into wireless talking products makes it crucial for different industries to fight over the licenses in the market. However, the issue needs a standardised solutions and guidelines as more and more industries and going to start incorporating technology.

Apprehension

USA comes up with new rules to protect individual and co-authors of short online literary works

USA in response to a petition filled by the National Writers Union, the American Society of Journalists and Authors and others in the year 2017 came up with ‘Group Registration of Short Online Literary Works’ rule. The petition highlighted the problems faced by the individual writers lacking time and resources to register their works with the office.
A new form named the GRTX (Group Registration for Short Online Literary Works) has been created specifically for the online submissions. The rule allows single and joint authors to register the copyrights of up to 50 creations (each work being of 50 to 17,500 words) in a single application.

Order

Indian TikTok alternatives face copyright infringement by the Music labels.

Applications like Ropso, Josh, Mitron et cetera have been taking advantage of the blank market because of the ban announced on TikTok by the Indian government claiming security and privacy issues. These applications use popular music tracks without the permission of the licensor. Big Music labels like T-series have served legal notices to these companies for copyright infringement. Unlike TikTok, these companies have not acquired license from the music labels and are involved in using the music track for running their businesses in social media. Usually, social media platforms like Facebook have tie ups with the music label companies which acts like a good and consistent source of income for the music labels post the wide use of such social media platforms making it mutually beneficial.

Copyright Infringement

THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF IMMUNOLOGY GRANTED PATENT FOR DEVELOPMENT OF MEMBRANE BOUND EXPRESSION

The patent in discussion is a membrane bound expression-based DNA vaccine for inducing protective antibodies against Epsilon toxin (Etx) of Clostridium perfringens, comprising rDNA and a heterologous booster of SEQ.ID.NO. 2. The patent has been filed in the field of BIOTECHNOLOGY. Objections were raised under Section 3(d) of the Indian Patents Act that it was a result of the process/method of preparing DNA vaccine comprising different steps like cloning, culturing, expression, isolation etc. However, later it was seen that the resultant vaccine is capable of eliciting strong antibody titerstitres and invokes both humoral and cell mediated immune response. Therefore, the invention not only satisfied the presence of an inventive step and novelty but also took a“substantial intellectual leap” to be considered worthy of patent protection.

Decided case

SCOPE OF AI CLEARED BY UPSTO

On April 22, 2020, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued a ruling stating that an Artificial Intelligence (AI) system named DABUS, that invented fractal light signal with pulses modelled to correspond to human brain waves, independently and autonomously, could not obtain a patent. It was held that inventorship under U.S. patent law is limited to natural persons and rejected the application for an AI machine. The said decision pointed out various statutes which use words like “individual” and “whoever” in the context of inventorship, thereby implying natural persons. It also requires the declaration to be signed by an individual when that individual believes “himself or herself” to be an inventor of the claimed invention.

Order