Pa per G

PATENTS IN INDIA

Gives a brief outline of the Patent System ingenar a.I and describes in some detail theIndian Patent System. Shows the importance ofpatents as a source of information and enu-mera.tes the problems in patent literaturesearch. Describes efforts made at present toexploi t. Describes efforts made s.tpresent[;0 exploi t the patents and suggests ways fortheir fuller utilization. Some patent officeproblems are also briefly dealt with.

o INTRODUCTION

A patent is a grant from the Government,acting through the Patent Office, which con-

/ fers on the grantee, for a limited term, theexclusive privilege of making, selling andusing an invention, and also of authorizingothers to do so. In England, where the modernpatent system o»iginated, sovereign grantswere made in the form of 'letters patent'(litterae patentes) or open letters, so calledbecause they. were not sealed up but exposedto view. The grants for invention becameknown as "Letters patent of inventions". Theterm 'patent' is derived from it.

o 1 What of a Patent

The" patent" is thus an industrial protectedright, other similar protected rights being

V 8 N 2 Jun 1961

s DUTTAInsdoc, New Delhi

'design', 'trade mark', and' copyright'. Thesemay be distinguished as follows:-

011 Patent.- relates to the invention underlyingthe manufacture of a vendible product.

012 Design.- relates to the external featuresof that product as they appeal to the eye.

013 'trade mark.- relates to the good-will ofthe manufacturer or dealer trading inthe product.

014 Copyright.- relates to exclusive right inthe reproduction of literary or artisticcomposition.

02 What is Patentable

The subject of a patent must be a mannerof new manufacture. In essence, a patent-able invention:

1 should relate to a manner of manu-facture;

2 should be novel in the manner ofmanufacture;

3. should be the outcome of inventiveingeniuty;

4 should have utility; and

5 should not be contrary to law ormorality.

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03 Why of Patent

The practice of granting these limitedmonopolies for new invention, inspite of thegeneral condemnation of monopolies as such,is regarded of definite value to the industrialand economic development of a modernsociety. The utility of the patent system inthe national industrial development is uni-versally accepted and exercised throughoutthe world.

04 A Dutch Experiment

An interesting experiment tried on theDutch patent system in the nineteenth centuryillustrates the close relationship that existsbetween industrial progress and the patentsystem. In 1869 Holland abolished its patentsystem. But, it was noticed that the growthof Hollands' export trade of manufacturedgoods came practically to a standstill. Soafter 43 years, in 1912, Holland reintroducedthe national patent system.

H~TORY OF PATENT SYSTEM

11 Earliest Patent

Long before a regular patent systemdeveloped anywhere, a number of isolatedgrants appear in various countries.

12 Earliest Patent System

The regular practice of granting patent,however, appears to have began in Veniceabout 1475. This seems to be confimed bya declaration of the Senate dated 15th March,1474, which said that if anyone made andbrought to perfection in Venice any new andingenious machine, not made previously inVenetian territory, others would be prohibitedfrom making the same for 10 years without theconsent and licence of the inventor; addingthat the State would be at liberty to use theinvention and that infringers would be fined100 ducats and the infringing machine des-troyed. Surprisingly, provisions of themodern patent system after 500 years,remain substantially the same.

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13 Modern Patent System

Although Venice may claim to be the firststate to have a regularised patent system, itwas the later development in England thatendured. Modern patent systems of the worldowe their inspiration to the English example,on which they are generally based.

14 Patents in Many Lands

Almost every country (over 140) with anydegree of industrial development has a patentlaw in force and many of them issue patentsregularly (1,2,3).

141 England

The Statute of Monopolies, enacted inEngland in 1624, laid down for the first timethe conditions on which patents of invention mightmight be allowed.

142 USA

The United States of America was the secondcountry in the world to enact a law of patentsbasis for which was laid in the Constitutionadopted in 1787. The first patent, however, wasissued on July 31, 1790 only.

143 France

The first patent law of France was passed in1791. In the French Patent System, the patentapplications are not subject to examination asto novelty.

144 Germany

The German patent law which came into forcein 1877, has had a decisive influence upon thefurther development of patent legislation in theworld. In this system, every patent applicationis examined for novelty, and after the patent isaccepted, an opportunity is given to the generalpublic to "oppose" the grant.

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PATENTS IN INDIA GL3l

The Act of 1911 extends to the whole of Indiaexcept J aITlITlY-and Ka shrn ir , A patent grantedtill 1939 by the Indian Patent Office is operativein Bu r rn a also. Patents bearing dates prior tothe 1 April 1937 and in force at that t irrie are

apply for a" certificate of authorship" which operative in Aden. Indian patents granted priorgives h irn a cl ai rn to r eco rnp eris e in case to 15th August 1947 have effect in Pakistan ashis invention is exploited by the Govern- well.rn ent or cornrn er cial corporations.

145 US S R

Prior to the first World War, Russia adoptedthe Ge r rn ari s y s t ern . The present law in Russia,p r omul gate d in 1931 introduces interestingfeatures. It is open to every inventor either to

apply for a patent, when he earns theright as patentee to exploit the inventionwithin the l im it irripo s e d by Soviet Legis-1ation on private and co mrrie r c ial acti-vities; or

2

15 International Convention

Forty six countries, including India, aresignatories to the International Convention forthe Protection of Industrial Property (4). UnderArticle IV of the convention a person who hasduly applied in a convention country for patentprotection for an invention ITlay cl ai m "conven-tion priority" for any patent application in respectof the s arn e invention which he rnav rnak e withinthe" convention period" (generally 12 month a) inconvention countries.

2 Indian Patent Sy stern

21 Patent Law in India

Substantive legislation for the protection ofinvention in India was enacted in 1856, 1859,1888 and 1911. But until 1911 the expression"Exclusive privileges" was used for the t er rn"Patent". Otherwise the en ac trrrent s corres-ponded to the legislation in force at that t irnein the United Kirig dorn (5).

211 The Act of 1911

T he Act of 1911 rnade impo r tarit departures,and for the first t irn e provided for the grantingof a "patent" and the e s tabl ishrrient of PatentOffice for rna tt e r s incidental or suppl errient ar yto the granting of patents. For detail of patentAct, rules and regulations see Part I of the

V 8 N 2 Jun 1961

latest edition of the Patent Office handbookpublished by the Government of India, Managerof Publications.

22 Jurisdiction

Co. l

/

221 Reciprocal Ar r an gern ent s

Reciprocal a.r r a.ngerrrent s for the rriutu alprotection of inventions and designs existbetween India and the following countries:

1 Australia2 Canada3 Eire4 New Zealand5 Pakistan6 Union of South Africa

Reciprocal arrangernents for the protectionof invention only, exist between India andCeylon.

23 Procedure for Obtaining a Patent

231 Steps

The procedure for obtaining an Indianp'atent involves the following steps:

1 Filing an application for patent;

2 Flling a "CoITlplete specification"either along with the application orfollowing the "Provisional specifi-cation" filed along with the applica-tion.

3 Exarrii nat ion of the application by thePatent office;

4 Acceptance of the application by thePatent Office and its anno un ce rneritin the Gazette of India. It is then

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kept open for opposition for fourmonths;

5 Overcoming opposition on the grant ofthe patent if the grant is opposed byany person; and

6 Sealing the patent.

232 Time limit

The aforesaid steps shouid be completedwithin a prescribed time limit (6). Legalminimum time limit for obtaining patent isabout 6 months, and maximum 2 years (plus

. an extension period of 4 months). Normally'/ it takes about 18 months for the sealing of

a patent from the date of filing of the applica-tion.

2321 Term of a Patent

The normal term for an Indian patent is 16years, and is reckoned from the day whencomplete specification was filed. Same is thecase with Bz itish patents. In the U.S.A. andCanada, the 17-year term is reckoned fromthe date of the grant. Under special circum-stances the term can be extended.

233 Patent Specification

A patent specification contains the followingdetails: -

Heading, which includes the name andaddress of the patentee or patentees,the assignee and the address thereof,the patent number, the date of appli-cation, and the title of the invention;

2 Brief statement of the general natureor the objects of the irivent ion:

3 Explanation of the drawings reproduced,if any;

4 Specific, detailed description of one ormore ways of embodying and carryingout the invention; and

5 One or more claims that define conciselyand comprehensively the inventioncovered by the patent.

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24 Sources of Patent Information

0/ 241 Weekly Notifications

Part III, Section 2 of the Gazette of Indiacontains weekly lists of applications forpatents made, applications accepted, speci-fications printed, patents granted, patentsrenewed, patents ceased, and other mattersnotified by the controller of patents for theinformation of the public.

- 242 Patent Office Publications

The publications of the Patent Office are:

1 The Patent Office handbook;

2 A Guide to inventors;

3 Specifications of invention;

4 The Patent Office Journal - This annualpublication includes a subject matterindex classifying patents accordingto the various branches of industry;

5 Inventions (consolidated subject matterindex, name index and chronologicallists) - there are seven such consoli-dated lists covering the period 1859-1932.

6 Patents for inventions: Abridgement ofspecifications - published in 66 groups,for every set of 5,000 patents. Eachgroup volume contains abridgements.of specification relating to inventionsin respect of subjects indicated fullyin the subject matter index; and

7 Annual reports of the working of thePatent Office.

25 Inspection Centres

The Appendix 'H' of the Annual report ofthe Patent Office contains a complete list ofinspection centres in India and abroad.Patent literature can be inspected free ofcharge at these inspection Centres.

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PATE\lTS IN n:DIA G4

3 PATF:NT LITERATURE

31 Primary Literature forAr,pLed Sc ien ces

Patents Plake up' an impo r t ant part of thel it e r at ur e of applied sciences, particularlychemical technology, They are primarysources of inf or mat ion because an inventionmust cover new and useful information to bepatentable (7),

32 Chemical Technology

The patent literature is a better source ofinformation on many phases of chemical tech-nology than either reference books (soon out-dated) or even scientific and technical papers,Much of the work done in laboratories havingindustrial applications are reported and des-cribed in patents only, It is estimated thatrno r e than 20 per cent of the patent literature

pertain to the field of appl iccl chemistry (8).It is about 40 per cent in t l.o case of Indianpatents (9).

33 Gr owth of Patents

Like the periodical literature, the patentliterature is vol uminous and is growingrapidly. Almost every country with anydegree of indust r ial de vel opm en t issues patentsand s orr.e of r he r r: have been issuing them formany years. It is estimated that in 1955,there were about 7 million patents throughoutthe world. The corresponding figures wasonl y 1. 2 n ri Il ion in 1900 (10).

331 Growth of Indian Patents

The accompanying table depicts the growthof Indian patents during the last ten years (11).

Application filled from PatentsYear Indians Foreigners Foreign Total Sealed Printed Awaiting

in India in India countries printing

1950 352 47 1452 1851 1610 2582 2253

1951 422 42 1644 2103 1714 2468 1603

1952 473 45 1754 2272 1602 1061 2305.••.•. (:,'"

1953 406 55 1774 2235 1856 1680 2535." ~'.

1954 403 51 2043 2497 1811 2541 1942

1955 403 43 2290 2736 1945 1866 2064

1956 482 58 2527 3067 2006 1695 2532

1957 527 82 2847 3456 2312 1678 3402

1958 529 73 2970 3572 3011 1603 2416

1959 671 55 3239 3965 2433 2120 3648

4 PATENT LITERATURE patent literature search a trying job (12, 13) .

SEARCH PROBLEMS So much so, in many countries people areofficially advised to consult professional lit-erature searchers for their problems. Many

Enormous growth in patent literature, and progressive industrial concern maintain aunsatisfactory arrangement obtaining for the highly qualified staff to do patent literatureretrieval of information from them, make the search in their field of interest.

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41 Numbering of Patents

Patents are arranged by their serialnumbers and referred to by the same. In-dian pat~nts get serial numbers as soon asthey are filed, and published patents carry

,/ the same serial number. Since a numberof patents filed are not finally accepted anddeclared void, there are many gaps in theserial number of patents sealed and published.This creates a problem in the acquisitionprogramme, since a scrutiny has to be madeto ascertain whether a certain number iswanting in the collection of the library ortruly void. In U. S. A. and some other countriespatents get one set of serial number whenthey are filed and another set when they arefinally granted. Japanese patents are givennew set of serial numbers for each year.

42 Grouping of Patents

To facilitate searches patents are classi-fied, or more correctly, broadly grouped.The classification system of the variouscountries differ in most cas es. They allhave limitations, however, since the fieldcovered is broad and different kinds of patentsand searches involve different points of view.Amongst these, German classification systemis considered to be the most satisfactory, andSwedish, Norwegian, and Danish patents areclassified according to the German system.The Austrian classification is only slightlydifferent from the German (14). In the fourthAslib Conference, classification systems ofGermany, U. K., and U S. A. were discussedin detail.

421 Grouping of Indian Patents

The subject matter of Indian patent speci-fications has been classified under 208 mainclasses which are further divided into a numberof sub-classes. These classes have beengrouped into 66 groups. A compilation ofcatchwords and phrases leading to variousclasses mentioned above are given in Ref-erence index, publication issued by thePatent Office for official use.

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43 Index to Patents

. A properly consolidated subject index forIthe patents issued is an essential tool forthe patent literature search.

431 Subject-Matter Index

The index published in the Patent Officejournal forms a continuation of the index escontained in the Subject-matter index 1912-32. Entries are arranged alphabeticallyand grouped under main class heading, andreferred to the patents by their serialnumbers. Patent Office journal of 1946,1950 and 1956 contains consolidated subjectindex for the years 1940-43l't1 1944-46, and1952-54 respectively. The publicationInventions is long out of print.

432 Consolidated Index

Thus we see that after 1932, no consoli-\dated index of Indian patents for any consi-derable period is available. In the absenceof long period consolidation of Abridgements

(see sec 44), consolidation of subject-matterindex for a longer period is desirable.

44 Abridgements

Abridgement of patent specifications arepublished in "Group volumes" identified bygroup numbers. Since 5,000 patents (TheBritish Abridgement of specifications arepublished for every series of 20,000 speci-fications) are consolidated in each volume,thes e serve as index for patents is sued inless than two years. Moreover, the latestAbridgements available refer to the year1948 and earlier, thus seriously limitingtheir value as tools for retrospectivesearch.

5 WORKIN'G OF PATENTS

Although patents are important sources of

\technical information, their main value lies intheir effective utilisation. If patents are not

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PATENTS IN INDIA

exploited, it goes against the very basis of thepatent system which is established on theas sumption that it is conducive to the in-dustrial progress of the country. To im-plement this inherent stipulation, in mostcountries of the world a patent is grantedand exclusive rights are for a limitedperiod (4 years in India) reserved to thepatentee on condition that within a reasonabletime the invention is IIwor ked" in thecountry.

51 Nominal Working

It is not always feasible to arrange for anarticle to be manufactured in each countrywhere it is patented. The patentee must,however, show that he has made an att ernptto do so, and for this purpose it is usual toadvertise or make written offers of lincenceto work the invention; that procedure isknown as "riornin al wor king'! , as oppos edto IIactual wor ki ng!' , In India nominalworking is accepted. For most other in-dustrially advanced countries actual workingis required. Working is not required in USA.

52 Governmental Effort

In Russia, a duty is imposed on the Govern-ment and public authorities to promote inven-tions. In England, machinery for activelypromoting such use has been provided by theDevelopment of Inventions Act 1948, whichhas authorised the setting up of a NationalResearch Development Corporation, whosefunctions are those of securing, where thepublic interest so requires, the developmentor exploitation of inventions and of dealingin patent rights.

521 National Research DevelopmentCorporation of India

lrhe National Research Development Corpora-tion of India was established in December 1953with the aim of "to stimulate development ofpatents and inventions arising out of researchesconducted in research institutions financed

V 8 N 2 Jun J96J

C54

out of public funds and, where feasible in thepublic interest, . of patented inventions frominvididuals al so .' Till the end of 1953, In-dustrial Liaison -Committee which dealtwith patents and processes arising out ofresearches sponsored by C SIR and PatentsAdvisory Committee which was concernedwith exploitation of government owned patents,both under the Ministry of Commerce &Industry, were responsible for this work.

Total number of investigations referred toN R DC upto 31 March 1959, were 503. Outof these 70 inventions were released free and100 abandoned, leaving a balance of 333 ef-fective inventions. Total number of projectsinstituted during this five year period were 11,and 67 inventions were licenced (15).

53 Development of NationallyUseful Patent

!Although there are nearly 16,000 patentsin force in India and on an average 3000patents are granted each year, a very lowpercentage of these are exploited. There is,thus a lamentable wastage of inventive in-genuity/. In a symposium held in Calcutta inFebruary 1956 during the centenary cele-bration of the Indian patent system, a pleawas made that IIpatents should be groupedand examined in the light of the broad ob-jectives of the national plan and a compre-hensive scheme for the development ofnationally useful patents should be drawnup" (16). In order to work such a schemein practice the first essential step appearsto be to expedite the bringing out of anup-to-date compilation of classified abridge-ments. This classified information wouldbring within the realm of practicabilitythe selection and development of patents ona planned basis. Developmental work maybe undertaken by the N R DC.

54 Practical Difficulties

\,...But there are many practical difficultiesin the way of effective utilization of patents.In relation to minor inventions the patent

\ system works more or less as it should. In

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relation to major inventions it works wellenough as a system for collecting and dis-seminating technical information, but as asystem for encouraging the making andcommercial use of inventions it is not verys at is facto rv] Once a new technique orproduct has been developed and shown to becommercially workable, a competitor withthe technical resources of modern industryat his disposal will not find it very difficultto work out another way of doing the samething. This tendency is emphasised by thehigh cost of litigation about patents (17).

541 Incomplete Disclosure

Another factor for poor exploitation ofpatents is incomplete disclosure of informa-tion. Patent disclosures are supposed to befull, clear. and exact but thev s el.dornmeasure upto this standard. Dis cl osur es aresometimes inadequate and sometimes mis-leading. Often experimental details arenot given sufficiently. A patent applicationsometimes intentionally has the real essenceof the invention hidden away in a singl e in-conspicuous paragraph. Often patents,worded by lawyers, are written in a formthat is difficult to strip of legal terminologyto get down to facts (18). This factor maybe a sequal to the malpractices mentionedin the previous section.

6 PATENT OFFICE PROBLEMS

61 Patent Search

At pres ent, except for a few privateagencies, no facilities for patent searchexist in India. Even in the Patent Officecomprehensive patent search is not under-taken with the result that sometimes costlyand time consuming litigation has ensued aftera patent has been accepted. A bill (PatentsBill, 1954) is under consideration to makeit obligatory on the Patent Office to make athorough literature search for ascertainingthe novelty of invention before a patent isaccepted. Once these facilities are fullydeveloped in the Patent Office, the servicescan be utilized for other types of patent

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search as well. In course of time specializedsearch facilities may be developed in someof the patent inspection centres, e g chemicalliterature search at the National ChemicalLaboratory, search of metallurgical literatureat the National Metallurgical Laboratory andso on.

611 Personnel

For making a thorough literature searchpossible, provision of adequate qualified staff-is absolutely essential. In this connection itwould be worthwhile to study the practicefollowed in some of the advanced countries.

6111 American Patent Office

In the Patent Office, literature searchingforms a large part of the patent examinationprocedure. This enormous task concerns itselfwith the screening of all the world's technicalliterature, including both foreign and domesticpatents. The work is divided among a number ofof examining divisions, each division havingjurisdiction over certain assigned fields ofinvention. Each division is headed by aprimary (or principal) examiner and staffedby a number of examiners. The examinersperform the work of examining applicationsfor patents and determine whether patentscan be granted. The examiners also deter-mine when an interference exists betweenpending applications, or a pending applica-tion and a patent, institute intereferenceproceedings in such cases and hear and decidecertain preliminary questions raised by thecontestants. At present the US PatentOffice has about 2,300 employees of whomabout half are examiners and others withtechnical and legal training. Patent applica-tions are received at the rate of over 70,000per year (19).

6112 Delay

Inspite of enormous staff, it takes onaverage nearly 3 years for a patent to beaccepted in America. The problem hasbecome so acute, that programme is at

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PATENTS IN INDIA G7

hand to carry out the literature searchmechanically (20).

62 Classification Problem

In India, the question of literature searchby electronic machines does not arise at present,because of the enormous cost invol ved , But tomake the search more expeditious, and efficient,a more refined tool than broad subject group-ing, as is being used at present, is required.Classification seems to be the answer to thisproblem both for manual searching as wellas for mechanical searching. But then,classification of patents itself presents avery peculiar problem.

621 Search Elements

Patents cover the field of:-

1 Manufactured products;

2 Process for manufacturing the same;

3 Apparatus used in practicing manu-facturing process;

4 Materials used in manufacturingprocesses for making the manufac-tur ed products;

5 Non-manufacturing processes; and

6 Apparatus used in practicing non-rnanufac tur ing pr oce s ses.

The search operation must satisfy all ofthe diverse interests within the above sixcategories. Thus a patent office search isinvariably for combinations. These combi-nations are of known factors in alleged newrelation to give some new or improved func-tion or results (21).

622 Faceted-Depth Classification

Since different kinds of patent searchesinvolve different points of view" any classi-fication system which is going to be usefulfor patent search purposes must be an organicsort of entity ... for it must be able to growand to adjust itself to an ever changing

V 8 N 2 Jun 1961

environment ... A good classification systemought to be capable of both micro- and macro-evolution. The scheme must have built intoit the capacity to effect comp a r at iv el y minoradjustments in its structure, not too exten-sive new connections between items; and theassociated computer s should be able automa-tically to make the necessary readjustmentsin its programming, in its memory organs,etc." (22). Perhaps the faceted-depth classi-fication based on postulational approach (23)coupled with chain procedure (24) beingdeveloped in India may provide the right toolfor helpful arrangement and easy retrievalof patents.

63 Printing

Delay in printing of patents is a perennialproblem with the patent office. Each year itcarries a back-log of nearly 2,000 sealedpatents awaiting printing. Once a patent isnotified in the Gazette of India, Insdoc startsreceiving requests for supply of a copy of thespecification - - which cometimes takes asrnuch as two years to get printed. Thisdifficulty can be obviated if arrangements aremade at the Patent Office to make photographicmaster copy of the original and supply photo-reproduction of the patent on demand. Even-cheaper copying processes, e. g. diazo, willserve for rno st of the purposes, when a copyis not needed for long preservation (25).

64 Storage

P r obl ern of storage of patents at the PatentOffice -- which rnu s t be considerable, consid-ering the fact that nearly 3000 patents aresealed each year -- gets automatically solvedif the above procedure is adopted. Only i.t ernneeding storage will then be master copies ofthe patents sealed.

7 DISSEMINATION OFPATENT INFORMATION

Rama Pai, formerly Controller of Patents& Designs, has analysed the causes for India'sapathy to the patent svs t ern (26), and one of the

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r erni di e s. he suggests is proper publicity.

One important factor for the proper utili-zation of Indian patents would be effectivediss emination of patent information. Besidesoriginal patents and official patent officepublications (27) other sources of patentinformation may be classified ~s follows:-

1 Scientific and technical periodical s;2 Abstracting and indexing periodicals;3 Patent digests and lists;4 Court records;5 Periodicals devoted to patents; and6 Other services.

71 Scientific & Technical Periodicals

Many a journal devoted to specific branchesof technology, have abstracts sections whichusually include abs t r act s of patents relevantto the industry. They often give a fuller ab-stract than is found in the general abstractingjournals. Some of the foreign journals whichprovide such abstracts in special fields are:American dyestuff reporter, Chemie et in-dustrie, International sugar journal, Journalof the American Ceramic Society, Journalof applied chemistry, Journal of the Instituteof Petrol eum, and Kol.Ioi d Zeits chrift.

711 Indian Periodicals

In India, Journal of Scientific & IndustrialResearch had been publishing since its incep-tion (1942-43) a select list of patents in thefield of chemistry and technology acceptedand announced in the Gazette of India. It waspresented under the same broad group head-ings used by the Patent Office. This feature

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was discontinued from 1957, but was takenup in the Research and industry which wasstarted in 1956. It covers on an average60 patents every month out of a total ofnearly 250 announced every month in theGazette of India. A comprehensive coverageof patents taken by the Council of Scientific& Industrial Research is made in the C SIRNews. Very few other Indian periodicals e gFood science, Bulletin of the Central LeatherResearch Institute, cover Indian patents.Chemical age of India publicizes those Indianpatents which have been taken by N R D Cfo r utilization.

72 Abstracting and IndexingPeriodicals

Abstracting and indexing periodicals areperhaps the best sources of patent informa-tion, and perhaps the only source consultedby many patent literature searchers. Thereare many excellent abstracting and indexingperiodicals in the field of chemistry andspecialized branches of technology. Themost well known service in the field isChemical abstracts which covered nearly22,000 patents from 21 countries in 1958.There are annual and cumulative patentnumber indexes that are cl as s ifi ed by country.

Chemisches Zentralblatt, also has agood coverage of patents (25,600 in 1958),particularly continental patents.

Referativnyi zhurnal, Khimiya of theUS S R covered in 1958 about 12,000patents from 18 countries. Soviet patentsare not abstracted. In 1960, separate sectionhas been published for patents.

The following table gives comparative coverage (in 1958) for the three abstractingperiodicals described:-

Country issuingthe patents

Chemical AbstractsNumber of patents abstracted in

Chemisches ReferativnyiZentralblatt Khimiya

Zhurnal,

1

2

Australia

Austria

72

144

64

352

823

66

29

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PATENTS IN INDIA G72

Table Continued

Country is suing'the patents

Number of atents abstracted inChemical Abstracts Chemisches F eferativnyi Zhurnal,

Zentralblatt Khimiya

1

1380

351 366

60

353 69

12 5

3670 1254

499 300

5235 2526

1130 2

7

419

1627

5

389 42

162

183 150

1559 216

4285 677

4968 4513

3 Belgium

4 Canada

5 Czechoslovakia

6 Denmark

7 Finland

8 France

9 Germany (E)

10 Germany (W)

11 Holland

12 INDIA

13 Israel

14 Italy

15 Japan

16 Mexico

17 Norway

18 Poland

19 Spain

20 Sweden

21 Switzerland

22 U.K.

23 U.S.A.

24 U.S.S.R.

TOTAL

80

64

56

504

352

4890

125

56

88

312

2667

56

48

223

2808

8432

984

21963 25615 12069

-? 60 Indian patents. Abstracts of the CentralBoard of Irrigation &: Power, DocumentationNotes, N. B. O. abstracts - some of the wellknown Indian abstracting periodicals - donot cover patent literature. Steps may be ~

model of Chemical titles published by thesame Service.

721 Indian Abstr acting &:Indexing Services

Chemical patents published by the ChemicalAbstracts Service is a new express service,fe atu rin g machine indexing of current andpatent literature. It is a pilot study on the

There is no Indian Abstracting and indexingperiodical in the field of chemistry and tech-nology. Chemical abstracts covers only about i--s-

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......".taken to exhaustively index t he Indian patentsin such classified indexes as Insdoc list orBi.bliography of scientific publications of Southand South East Asia.

73 Patent Digests &< Lists

'The number of digests of patents on specificsubjects is small. Many of them are Germanpublications and are often based on Germanpatents only. Some of the important publica-tions in this field are: Fortschritte in deranorganischchemischen Industrie an Haridder deutscher Reichspatente dargestallt, 5V.,Doyles digest of patents relating to coaltardyes and allied compounds, Fortschritte derTeerfarbenfabrikation und verwandter Indus-triezweige, 26V., Chemical patents index,etc.

731 Indian Digests

The only Indian publication in this cate-gory is perhaps the Patented inventions of theC SIR, which is a compilation of 132 ofpatented inventions of the Council of Scientific&< Industrial Research for the period 1940'-50.The specifications are arranged in the numeri-cal order and indexes (of inventions and in-ventors) are given at the end.

74 Court Records

Valuable information may be obtained attimes from court records of patent cas es.The Official Gazette of the United States PatentOffice gives brief reports on selected decisionsin patent cases. Some useful sources of legaldecisions on US patents are: Decisions of theCom.m.issioner of Patents, Court of customs andpatent appeals, Reports of the patent section,and U. S. Supreme Court reports for patent,copyright and trade mark cases.

741 Indian Sources

The Patent Office journal give s a list ofspecial proceedings regarding patents forwhich there has been opposition, appeals to

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the High Court, etc. The Patent Office hand-book also contains Chapters on proceedings incourt as well as decisions of courts..

75 Periodicals Devoted to Patents

Some of the periodical publications havinginternational coverage are: Research, patents,and trademarks, 1947 - {formerly the Inter-national bulletin of industrial property), Des-sins et mo del es internationaux, and Revueinternationale de la propriete industrielle etarti stique.

76 Other Services

Besides the publications described, variousother types of services are available in someof the industrially developed countries:-

761 Microfilms

Patent cl as sification microfilm (10 reels,3,000,000 patents. Available as PB 144 504from the Library of Congress, Washington25, D. C. at ~6. OO/reel and ~50. OO/set) isthe 16 rnrn copy of the official records of theclas sification of U. S. patents is sued uptoSeptember 23, 1959. It is arranged numeri-cally in class and sub-class order accordingto the patent office Manual of classification.There is also Patent classification microfilm.Classification of design patents available(Pb 144 625 Library of Congress, Washington2SD.C).

762 Specialised Service

The British Patent Office, on opening adeposit account, supply to the subscriber allspecifications which are relevant to a parti-cular industry (28). This is of interest toindustrialists, specializing in a line of tech-nology, and for whom it may not be profitableto maintain a full-fledged patent literaturesearch facilities. A comprehensive serviceon micro-cards for U. S. patents is availablein USA. A pri.vate organization, Information

An lib sc

PATENTS IN INDIA

for Industry supplies, on a subscription basis,a curnul at ive bimonthly uniterm index tochemical patents (29).

763 Lapsed Patents

Publicity may be given to lapsed patentsof the nature which may be attractive to smallscale industrialists. They are very often notin a position to licence patents in fo r ce ;»

8 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Sec 14 White (W W) and Ravanscroft(B G). Patents throughout theworld. Ed 2. 1948 (kept up-to-date on loose leaf).

Vojacek (Jan). A survey of theprincipal patent systems. 1936.

2 Sec 14

3 Sec 14

4 Sec 15

5 Sec 21

6 Sec 232

7 Sec 31

8 Sec 32

9 Sec 32

10 Sec 33

11 Sec 33]

12 Sec 4

Meinhardt (P). Inventions,patents and monopoly. 1946.

Hollins (Cecil). Introduction to the 20patenting of inventions. 1951. 75.

Pai (R B). Patents for in-vention. 1956. 51-53.

India Patent Office. Patentsand designs. 1948. 24.

Davison (Geo H). Facts con-cerning patents, of parti-cular interest to industriallibrarians and informationofficers. (Aslib Proc; 5; 1953;101-20).

F1eicher (J). The growth ofchemical patents. (Chern EngNews; 30; 1952; 239-41).

India. Patent Office. Annualreport ... 1955.

Warren (Weaver). The PatentOffice problem. (Amer Doc; 256; 1955; 129-33).

India. Patent Office. Annualreports ... 1950-1959. 26

Luik (J V) etc. Searchingthe chemical and chemical 27

V 8 N 2 Jun 1961

G8

engineering literature. 1957.27 -33.

13 Sec 4 Bennet (E M). Searchingclassified patent specifica-tions. (Aslib Proc; 41952; 15-82).

14 Sec 42 Crane (E J) etc. A guide tothe literature of chemistry.Ed 2. 1951. Patents, 158-82.

15 Sec 521 India. National ResearchDevelopment Corporation.Fifth annual report. 1959.

In Sec 53 J Sci Ind Res; 15A; 1956; 262

17 Sec 54 White (T A B). Patents forinvention and the registrationof industrial designs. 1950. 24.

18 Sec 541 Crane (E J) etc. 10c cit.

19 Sec 6111 U S Department of Commerce.Patent Office. General in-formation concerning patents.1960.

Sec 6112 Pfeffer (H) etc. A firstapproach to patent searchingprocedures on Standard'sElectronic Automatic Com-puter (SEAC). (Amer Doc;10; 1959; 20-26).

21 Sec 621 Baily (M F). Patent office searchsearch operations. (Souvenir,Indian Patents Centenary, 1856-1956. 60-61).

Sec 622 Warren (Weaver). loc cit.

Sec 622 Ranganathan (S R). Postulationalapproach to faceted classifica-tion (Depth classification 29).(Ann lib sc; 5; 1958; 33-51).

See 622 Ranganathan (S R). Gla s s i.fiedcatalogue code with additionalrules for dictionary cataloguecode. Ed 4. 1958. Pt 3.

22

23

24

Se c 63 Donker Duyvis (F). Documentreproduction service (UnescoBull Libr; 14; 1960; 248).

Sec 7 J Sci Industr Res; 7; 1948; 271-72.

Sec 7 Crane (E J) etc. loc cit.

67

G8 DUTTA

. 28 See 762 Gravel (F W). Patents and thepatent office library (Aslib

Proe; 7; 1955; 99).

29 See 762 Chern Eng News; 33; 1955; 606.

68 An lib se