There may not be many  who have not used the JAYSON  water tap , so widely seen in the railway toilettes, water coolers , public water taps , etc ; but few would have realized that this tap was originally developed by a resident of Thiruvananthapuram and who was granted a patent for the same  by the Controller of Patents  and designs as per provisions of the then valid
Indian Patents and Designs Act,1911. This could  perhaps be also  the first success story of a Malayali inventor coming out with a very useful invention, seeking  intellectual protection under the relevant Act and  developing the same into a great commercial success.  

Shri Janardhanan Padmanabhan Subramanian , C/O Jayson Brothers , West Thampanoor , Trivandrum , Kerala State, India,  was granted a patent  holding Patent No. 3416  entitled  " Improvements in or Relating to a Water Tap sealed on the 11th day of March 1963 . The essence of the patent is as
below:

"In the past , taps have usually had a spindle or shank which can be rotated to press a leather washer against a valve seat so as to close the tap.This construction has the disadvantage that the leather washer wears out thereby causing the tap to leak.

"According to the present invention there is provided a tap comprising a valve member arranged to contol the flow of fluid through a valve body by means of an outer sleeve which is secured on the tap by the valve member." The outer sleeve may be either slidably mounted on the valve body so as
to slide along the body; or alternately it may be in screw threaded engagement with the valve body to be rotated upon.If the outer sleeve is slidably mounted on the valve body it may be arranged to slide down under the action of gravity so as to close the tap" 

And so on . To know further details , it is suggested that one may purchase a tap , open it and see for oneself - delightfully simple, but wonderfully innovative ! The patent was processed by the Chennai based De Penning & De Penning.

Along with the IPR protection measures,  the company developed the relevant technology for mass manufacture . According to the company sources, over four million such taps have been so far manufactured and sold all over India. And JAYSON taps continue to be the delight of the industry. Had Shri Subramanian concurrently filed  his patent  in the advanced countries , JAYSON would have become an international brand name !