Our low-cost ventilator design is different from PGI’s prototype: Mahindra group clarifies

On Thursday, Chandigarh PGIMER had accused Mahindra and Mahindra of stealing the design of their low-cost ventilator

After the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) accused Mahindra and Mahindra of stealing the design of a low-cost ventilator designed by a faculty member, the car manufacturer on Friday said there were differences in the two prototypes.

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Dr Rajeev Chauhan, an assistant professor at PGIMER’s department of anaesthesia, who designed the prototype had accused Mahindra and Mahindra of intellectual theft, claiming he had been working on the machine for a year and filed a patent for it with the Indian Patent Authority on December 22, 2019.

“In Dr Chauhan’s ventilator, the Ambu bag is pressed vertically from both sides with the help of a motor and lead screw mechanism, but in our machine, the Ambu bag is pressed horizontally only from one side. Besides, his machine has microprocessor-based electronic controls, while ours has a motor and ball screw mechanism, with PLC-based electronic controls. All our parts are standard, off-the-shelf ones, used in the engineering industry, while Dr Chauhan claims to have incorporated 3D printed parts in his concept,” said the official spokesperson of Mahindra and Mahindra.

The statement added that they were ready and willing for an examination by relevant authorities to establish the independence of their design and technology, and to withdraw the product, if it was established that the firm infringed any intellectual property owned by the claimants.