Packaging is the latest area that is seeing a raft of patent registrations by corporate India. As shelf spaces get crowded, companies are rushing in with innovative and clutter-busting packaging solutions across industries. And increasingly, companies are now filing patent applications to protect innovations around materials, package construction and features, technology and equipment.
Consider this: Recently, life science company Avesthagen was granted registration for its trapezoidal design by the Indian Patents Office for its Good Earth range of health foods. The trapezoid-shaped boxes, the company feels, created a distinct identity for its range of breakfast cereals. And companies across industry segments, led by a bevy of MNCs, are aggressively filing patents for registering their designs in India, including bluechips such as Procter and Gamble, Cadbury, Colgate-Palmolive, Hindustan Unilever, Reckitt Benckiser, Marico and Essel Packaging, among a host of others. Says Rahul Chaudhary, Partner at law firm Lall Lahiri and Salhotra: "Globally, packaging patents are on the rise. MNCs are first off the block in India as well." Packaging, it seems, has joined product, price, place and promotion as the fifth cornerstone of marketing.
PATENTS RUSH
