NIRAMAI Health Analytix is a Bangalore-based deep-tech startup addressing critical healthcare problems through automated solutions. Their mission is to create a universal cancer screening method that can save lives. Dr. Geetha Manjunath is the Founder, CEO and CTO of NIRAMAI Health Analytix, and has led the company to develop a breakthrough AI solution for detecting early-stage breast cancer in a non-invasive radiation-free manner. Geetha holds a PhD from IISc and management education from Kellogg’s Chicago. She comes with over 25 years of experience in IT innovation. She has proposed and led multiple AI projects at Xerox Research and Hewlett Packard India. Before starting NIRAMAI, Geetha was a Lab Director for Data Analytics Research at Xerox India. Geetha has received many international and national recognition for her innovations and entrepreneurial work, including CSI Gold Medal, BIRAC WinER Award 2018 and is also on the Forbes List of Top 20 Self-Made Women 2020. She was recently awarded the Accenture Vahini Innovator of the Year Award from Economic Times and Women Entrepreneur of the Year 2020 by BioSpectrum India.
Geetha is also an inventor of 16 US patents and more pending grant. INDIAai caught up with her to get insights into her patents and the patents process.
Geetha, can you tell us about the patents NIRAMAI has been granted so far?
I am very proud to share that Niramai now has 17 granted international patents which include 4 patents in India and 10 in the US. As you are aware, NIRAMAI has developed a new technology for detecting early-stage breast cancer in a radiation-free manner. The idea of the latest Indian patent that was granted last month was to use our Thermalytix technology for helping pregnant women and new mothers. It is about how AI-based analysis of thermal images can help assess the breast health and lactation readiness of mothers-to-be. Our technology can be used for detecting many other health conditions besides breast cancer.
Since patents require the detectability of invention, simple enhancements to an AI algorithm usually cannot be protected. Patents in a specific AI application either uncovers a new and innovative use case of AI or helps develop smart software with data-based decisions to address an existing problem. This opens up interesting opportunities for licensing AI software and associated business models. I think this will help the advancement of AI research activities not just in academia but also in the industry and entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Why is it important to patent your inventions?
It is important for startups to protect their Intellectual property through legal methods like patents and trademarks, as those become good assets that investors and corporate partners value a lot. It will also help create an entry barrier for their competitors to some extent.
What are the major challenges in the patent filing process?
The patent filing process is expensive, particularly when the company plans to have patents in multiple countries. In a start-up since cash flow management is critical, it is important to create the right company strategy for patenting. We need to decide which ideas are worth patenting and which are better off with a publication to stop your competitor from patenting. Furthermore, deciding in which countries to file patents is a very hard decision, due to uncertainties in the startup roadmap. Most importantly, the time from patent application filing to patent grant can sometimes take over 4 years and very few startups can afford to have such futuristic asset creation strategies.
What are the recent AI patent trends you are seeing?
AI can be used in multiple real-life application domains. I think people will mainly start filing broad patents to cover new use cases. The application areas can span from using AI for controlling traffic to monitoring covid to just have better entertainment. Sub technology segments that have a good opportunity are in AR/VR, AI-based point-of-care devices for health diagnosis, telehealth, autonomous driving, robotics, and so on.
Source: indiaai.gov.in
