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‘Patent’ is the hallmark that depicts the continuous innovation happening in a country. While India claims to achieve great heights in technology adoption, it’s still far behind when it comes to innovation.
Among 53 nations, India is ranked 40 on the Global Intellectual Property Index, according to the U.S. Chamber International IP Index. In 2018–19, a total of 50,659 patent applications were submitted—representing a 5.9% increase from the previous year.
Trends in the last five years concerning the filing of IP applications in India
India has made significant investments to make its patent system open and effective, but it still lags far behind the IP5 nations.
Nearly 80% of all patent applications filed worldwide are handled by the IP5 Offices collectively and about 95% of all work is done under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT)—an international convention governing patent law. In order to safeguard inventions in all of its contracting states, PCT offers a standardised process for filing patent applications.
Experts claim that patenting is the biggest indicator of innovation and India lacks immensely on that front, observing minute rise in the patent filing year-over-year. According to data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, India’s application for patent filing has increased from 8,538 in 2000 to 50,659 in 2019.
India lacks in R&D
India’s ranking in the patent filing is directly related to the investment that the country is putting in research and development. The country spends only 0.7% of its GDP on R&D, while the U.S. spends 2.8%, China invests 2.1%, Israel puts 4.3% and Korea spends 4.2% of its GDP in R&D. These numbers explain why India lacks innovation when compared to others.
Besides, most of the research and development investments are happening in India at the behest of the government with meagre contributions from corporates.
It is also interesting to note that unlike other economies, most of the R&D investments in India are made by the government. In 2015, Indian corporations spent only $17 billion in R&D, compared to the $286 billion and $341 billion spent by their Chinese and American counterparts, respectively. It is obvious that the private sector has a significant role to play in this scenario.
In addition, this may also help explain why there hasn’t been a significant increase in the number of resident filings but a steady increase in the number of international patent applications in India.
India against other countries in innovation
According to the data compiled by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), India filed only 2,053 patent applications in 2019, fewer than 1% of the global filings. The performance of individual companies was much higher than a country like India. For instance, Huawei filed 4,411 applications, Mitsubishi Electric filed 2,661, Samsung filed 2,334 and Qualcomm filed 2,127 applications.
Besides, none of the Indian companies appeared on the top 50 global list while as many as 13 Chinese companies featured in it.
Low literacy is another factor
India has a very low IP literacy rate, which is another factor that is holding individuals and education institutions back from filing patents.
Only 30% of the 50,000 patent applications submitted in India in 2018–19 were local businesses or individuals; the remaining 70% were submitted by international applicants. Compare that to the 1.4 million patent applications, the majority of which came from Chinese inventors.
In India, there are 8 million students enrolled in 10,000 educational institutions to study technology. More than 95% of these institutions have not submitted any intellectual property, and the remaining 5% annually file between 2000 and 2500 patents combinedly.
These low figures reveal a lack of IP understanding among Indian SMEs, students, and academia. Owing to such an insufficient knowledge of IPRs (intellectual property rights), small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) in India are thought to be losing millions in revenue.
When compared to other nations, India is currently one of the leaders in fee reductions for colleges. For instance, under the new Patent Rules, an educational institution is required to pay INR 160 per page up to a maximum of INR 24,000 for each page of a sequence listing of nucleotides and/or amino acid sequences. This fee is about an 80% decrease in typical fees. Previously, these institutions paid INR 800 per page and INR 120,000 for the sequence listing.
Experts claim that the amendments are aimed at smoothening the process of filing patent applications. Earlier, due to higher fees, education institutions felt discouraged while filing patents and protecting their inventions.
The educational institutions in India are now at par with the United States and China—the two nations that own the majority of the world’s patents. As of now, India is rated third in scientific publications but far lower in patent filings; research and development are essential for nations with strong patent filing rates. Now that the main financial barrier has been removed, India should be in a stronger position to encourage innovation and boost the number of patent applications made by its educational institutions.
