4 days ago
Current trends in India's patenting landscape
In 2023, 3.55 million patent applications were filed worldwide. In India, 90,298 applications were recorded that year, marking an increase of 17.2% from 2022 and 25.2% from 2021. Over 50% of these applications originated from Indian residents, highlighting growing domestic innovation. Despite these year-on-year improvements, however, India continues to lag behind countries like China, the US, and Japan both in terms of absolute numbers, and applications filed and granted that are domestic in origin. This brief examines the patent-related challenges in India, administrative inefficiencies, weaknesses in the domestic innovation ecosystem, the current status of patent filing in the country, capacities in patent boosting and performance, and inconsistencies across state-level patent incentives. The brief proposes targeted reforms. Most students in the city are unaware of intellectual property rights (IPR) and did not file patents for their research work.(Photo used for representational purpose)
Patents help drive innovation and economic growth. For India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi envisions a techade powered by the country's young innovators, with patent filings breaking records and startups thriving across tier-2 and tier-3 cities. The recent surge in patent registrations in India, up by 50% in five years, and a climb to the 39th position in the Global Innovation Index 2024 highlight India's progress and ambitions to lead globally in patents and innovation. At the time of writing, the Government of India was drafting a strategic blueprint to institutionalise IP financing, improve credit availability, and enable businesses to leverage IP to raise capital.
With intangible assets accounting for 85% of the S&P 500 valuation, India is working to create a uniform IP valuation system and appointing IP evaluators to boost IP-backed financing, generate awareness, and alleviate risk aversion among financial institutions. India's aspirations also extend to achieving a tenth of global patents in sixth-generation mobile services through the Bharat 6G Alliance, building on its achievements as the world's second largest mobile phone producer and the one with the fastest 5G network rollout. These initiatives build on India's National IPR Policy, which prioritises knowledge-driven development, emphasising IP commercialisation, human resource development, and stronger IPR administration.
This brief analyses the current status of patent filing in India and contrasts it with other countries. Individual Indian states' patent-boosting and performance are also discussed to contextualise India's position, capacity, and performance in patent filing and granting, and the targets it must aim to achieve.
This paper can be accessed here.
This paper is authored by Debajyoti Chakravarty, ORF, New Delhi.
