Skip to main content

Patents Sorted You Can Smile Now

By
Indian Patents Office rolls back its guidelines that allowed patenting for software inventions
The Patent Office's decision to roll back its guidelines that allowed software patents in India is being hailed as a big win for domestic startups, which will not have to worry about expensive patent litigation that can potentially stifle innovation in the country. Indian law on granting patents for software became a hot issue among startups, in the past year, after the Indian Patent Office in August interpreted the law to mean that if a software had industrial applications, it could be granted a patent.
The move was opposed by software product companies, activists and other industry folks who saw the decision as detrimental to startups and existing companies who would get entangled in endless litigation for developing a new product.
On February 19, the Patent Office rolled back the decision to allow software patenting for computerrelated inventions (CRI). “The legislature by limiting the scope of patentable subject matter in the field of software wanted our software professionals and industry to innovate and not be stifled by companies holding a stockpile of patents,“ said Prasanth Sugathan, counsel at Software Freedom Law Centre India, which was one of the front runners in the consultations.
According to the February 19 guidelines, the Patent Office has said the following computer-related inventions will be excluded from patenting: “A mathematical or business method or a com puter program per se or algorithms“, “a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work or any other aesthetic creation whatsoever including cinematographic works and television productions“ and “a mere scheme or rule or method of performing mental act or method of playing game“ and “a presentation of information“.
“At stake was something similar to what Micromax is going through with Ericsson in India. It is this huge litigation about having to pay a royalty... which could have happened to any of these Indian companies that could have killed them. Imagine if Ericsson was selling phones in India, they could have killed Micromax,“ said iPIRT Cofounder Sharad Sharma.
The decision to roll back the software patent guidelines will also give fillip to the government's Makein-India and Startup India initiatives, said Venkatesh Hariharan, iSPIRT member and former head of public policy and government affairs at Google India.
Multinational companies have been lobbying hard for allowing software patenting in India.
“We are disappointed by the revised Patentability Guidelines for Computer Related Inventions issued on February 19, 2016. We are studying the guidelines with care and will continue to work closely with the government to ensure that software inventions continue to be eligible for patent protection,“ said Yolynd Lobo, director (India), BSA, The Software Alliance.
The Economic Times, New Delhi, 24th February 2016

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Household debt up, but India still lags emerging-market economies: RBI

By
  Although household debt in India is rising, driven by increased borrowing from the financial sector, it remains lower than in other emerging-market economies (EMEs), the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in its Financial Stability Report. It added that non-housing retail loans, largely taken for consumption, accounted for 55 per cent of total household debt.As of December 2024, India’s household debt-to-gross domestic product ratio stood at 41.9 per cent. “...Non-housing retail loans, which are mostly used for consumption purposes, formed 54.9 per cent of total household debt as of March 2025 and 25.7 per cent of disposable income as of March 2024. Moreover, the share of these loans has been growing consistently over the years, and their growth has outpaced that of both housing loans and agriculture and business loans,” the RBI said in its report.Housing loans, by contrast, made up 29 per cent of household debt, and their growth has remained steady. However, disaggregated data sho...
Post a Comment
Read more

External spillovers likely to hit India's financial system: RBI report

By
  While India’s growth remains insulated from global headwinds mainly due to buoyant domestic demand, the domestic financial system could, however, be impacted by external spillovers, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in its half yearly Financial Stability Report published on Monday.Furthermore, the rising global trade disputes and intensifying geopolitical hostilities could negatively impact the domestic growth outlook and reduce the demand for bank credit, which has decelerated sharply. “Moreover, it could also lead to increased risk aversion among investors and further corrections in domestic equity markets, which despite the recent correction, remain at the high end of their historical range,” the report said.It noted that there is some build-up of stress, primarily in financial markets, on account of global spillovers, which is reflected in the marginal rise in the financial system stress indicator, an indicator of the stress level in the financial system, compared to its p...
Post a Comment
Read more

Healthy balance sheets augur well for economy: RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra

By
  Large tariffs by the United States administration and elevated geopolitical risk have increased near-term global financial stability risks, and along with weather events pose downside risks to domestic growth, Reserve Bank of India(RBI) Governor Sanjay Malhotra said in the foreword to the Financial Stability Report released today.Noting that domestic growth momentum is buoyed by strong domestic drivers, sound macroeconomic fundamentals and prudent policies, Malhotra said: “External spillovers and weather-related events could pose downside risks to growth.”On the other hand, he said the outlook for inflation is benign, and there is greater confidence in the durable alignment of inflation with the Reserve Bank’s target.Commenting that the structural shifts reshaping the global economy are making policy intervention challenging, the Governor emphasised the need for central banks and financial sector regulators to remain vigilant, prudent and agile in safeguarding their economies and...
Post a Comment
Read more