India IP growth – For the first time in 11 years, the number of domestic patent filings has surpassed the number of international patent filings in India between Jan-Mar 2022.
The Indian government has hailed this as a milestone for its growing IP innovation ecosystem. Of 19,796 patent applications filed, 10,706 were filed by Indian applicants against 9,090 by non-Indian applicants.
India’s ranking in Global Innovation Index has increased to 46th in 2021, rising 35 places, compared to its position as 81st in 2015-16.
The Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Public Distribution and Textiles, Shri Piyush Goyal praised the consistent efforts made by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade on strengthening the IPR regime in India by fostering innovation, and reducing compliance burden.
The coordinated effort by DPIIT and the India IP office has led to increased IP awareness among designers and engineers, as the country strives towards its ambitious target of being in the top 25 nations of Global Innovation Index.
India already ranks as the top innovator in Central and Southern Asia, and places second among all lower middle-income nations, yet is still some way behind much smaller nations, such as Croatia (42nd), Cyprus and Malta (28 and 27th respectively).
Some of the key initiatives taken by the Government over the years that has bolstered India’s IP regime includes fee concessions like 10% rebate on online filing, 80% fee concession for start-ups, small entities and educational institutions, and provisions on expedited examination for start-ups and MSMEs along with other categories.
A reduction in time for patent examination, from 72 months in Dec 2016 to 5-23 months at present, for different technological areas was also hailed as beneficial to India’s aims.
