An empirical study on India’s progress in intellectual property rights with reference to patent filing and grants in the emerging technological era

Introduction

The world has been evolving in various dimensions, in terms of business, technology, politics, environment system, culture, and so on. These changes have created an ever changing or dynamic environment. In this context, the business environment and science and technology are no exceptions. As we all know that India has been a country of agriculture, but of late industrialization, urbanization revolutionized the whole economy and it brought phenomenal transformation in economic, social, and technological environments.

In this light, science and technology have always been in the forefront of society in implementing changes and transformations. So the changes in technology, inventions, and innovations are all being considerably applied commercially. So in this situation, protection of the rights of the original inventor becomes necessary, and he has to be offered a legal environment, which motivates the inventors to invent more and they are paid well and recognize their hard work, skills, persistence, and so on. The architect and engineer Filippo Brunelleschi received the earliest known patent for an industrial invention in Florence in 1421. The patent granted him a 3-year monopoly on the production of a marble-transporting barge with hoisting equipment. It is this situation which speaks about Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and the relevance. Any ideas which originate from the intelligence can be termed as intellect, and why is it termed as property? It is because just like any other physical property or an asset, the intellect can also be used for prosperity and growth. IPR have different types, such as patents, trademark, industrial design, copyrights, trade secrets, and geographical indicators. We have already discussed that IPR have six types, including patents, trademark, industrial design, copyrights, and trade secrets. And each one of these things is meant for a specific creative skill to be rewarded and be used commercially. In the prevailing research article, we focus on patents in India.

Patents

An innovation is an item or a method that, generally speaking, proposes a new technical approach to a problem or a new way of accomplishing something. An innovation is granted an exclusive privilege known as a patent. In order to get a patent, technical information on the innovation must be made available in the application.

Trademark

A trademark is a design that may be used to distinguish one company’s goods or services from those of other businesses. Trademarks are protected by IPR.

Industrial designs

Legally speaking, an industrial design refers to a product’s ornamental element. A three-dimensional element like an object’s geometry may be present in an industrial design in addition to two-dimensional components like patterns, lines, or colors.

Copyright

The ownership rights that authors and other artists have over their creative works are referred to by the legal term “copyright,” which is sometimes referred to as “author’s right.”

In addition to books, music, paintings, sculptures, and films, copyright also protects computer programs, databases, advertisements, maps, and technical drawings.

Trade secrets

Trade secrets are protected by IPR that can be licensed or sold. If they have commercial value and are only known by a select few, the legitimate owner of the information must take reasonable measures to keep it a secret, including using confidentiality agreements with clients and staff. Additionally, it is considered an unfair conduct and a breach of the trade secret protection when third parties unlawfully obtain, utilize, or disclose such secret information in a way that is inconsistent with honest business practices.

Geographical indicators

An item with a specific geographic origin and traits or a reputation arising from that origin is labeled with a geographical indication (GI). A sign must state that a product is created in a certain region in order to qualify as a GI¹.

Background of the study

Intelligence is an element of the brain which can be termed as intellect, but when such intelligence can be commercially used, it certainly needs a protection that a third party does not exploit the invention. Though the term IPR sounds modern and latest, the concept of IPR was first used in 6^th century BCE in ancient Greece in a place called Sybaris. It was a baker who gained an exclusive right of raising a quality of bread for a year. Some of the sources also state that the origin of IPR was in the year 1421, where an Italian inventor was granted a patent. Even in Indian context, the history can be traced to Harappa Civilization, where pottery makers were given trademark for their intelligence.

The Latin term “Patene,” which means “To Open,” is the source of the English word “Patent.” A patent is a legal document that is granted by the state or national government in accordance with local and international laws. For a specific time, it grants the maker only the right to produce, utilize, and commercialize his or her work. The invention will be regarded as belonging exclusively to the patentee. Any other source may not use the inventor’s inventions throughout the patent’s validity period. In the context of India, patents may be traced back to the VI Act of 1856, which protected inventions based on the British Patent Law of 1852 and awarded 14 years of exclusive privileges to creators of new products. Periodically, this Act was updated, and the most recent revision was made in 2005 by the Patents Amendments Act.

Review of literature

1. In the paper of P. Varsha Pramod and Dr. Remya Ramachandran in the article titled Innovation, Intellectual Property Rights And Entrepreneurship ISSN:0971-1260 Vol-22-Issue-4-October-December-2019, the relationship between innovation and entrepreneurship in general and the significance of IPR in entrepreneurship are discussed, which go beyond only defending the rights of the inventor. However, it demonstrates how the government is working to establish a dynamic IPR environment through a number of initiatives. The article specifically assists aspiring business owners in getting a general understanding of issues that will enable them to benefit from IPR.

2. According Amit Kapoor and Sankalp Sharma in an article, the common people has just lately become aware of IPR. The protection of industrial property and copyright, which boosts the nation’s economy, requires a full grasp of IPR. The whole infrastructure was given by the Indian government. Software, traditional knowledge, plant varieties, and geographical indicators are all protected in particular ways. The identification, planning, execution, and preservation of innovation are made quicker and simpler with the aid of a good grasp of IPR.

3. According to an article by Lengare (1), titled Importance of intellectual property rights in Indian situation, IPR are crucial for the long-term growth of society in a knowledge-based economy. Since it is almost difficult to foster a creative atmosphere without widely distributing IPR understanding and application, the IPR is a fundamental requirement to participate in local as well as worldwide fair exchange. It is crucial for policymakers to integrate IPR within the framework of basic education and to support IPR recognition by empowering developers and innovators. India possesses all the necessary resources, including cheap labor, imaginative and creative workers, and raw materials. There is no doubt that India and other developing nations will increase their proportionate part of global trade by pursuing IPR.

4. In an article by Tiwari et al. (2), Management of intellectual property rights in India, the World Trade Organization’s agreement on trade-related aspects of IPR established international minimum standards for intellectual property protection, significantly enhancing and expanding IPR and producing glaring benefits for the pharmaceutical industry and the developed world. The current study thoroughly explains all facets of IPR as well as the standards for their protection.

5. In an article authored by Tulasi and Rao, (3) these inventions are referred to as property since they have a high commercial value.

6. As per BananaIP (4) IPR statistics report 2021 A total of 67,727 patent applications were examined in 2021 as opposed to 70,924 patent applications examined in 2020. The Patent Offices granted 30,431 patents in 2021 compared to 26,309 in 2020 chalking in an increase of 15.66%. In 2021, China had the most patent grants worldwide with 695,946 patents granted to resident and non-resident companies or organizations. The United States followed with 327,307 granted patents the same year.

7. As per Economic Times (5) report during January-March 2022 quarter, the total number of patents filed stood at 19,796. Out of these, 10,706 were filed by Indian applicants while non-Indian applicants filed 9,090 patent applications.

Patents can be used to protect inventions as intellectual property as long as they are new, original, and practical. The World Trade Organization proposed the TRIPS agreement in order to facilitate trade among its members. India took the required first step by joining the World Trade Organization and adapting to the needs of the world.

The purpose of this article is to inform pharmaceutical professionals, in particular those working in research and development, about the importance of thoroughly reviewing prior art before designing new inventions in order to save time and money. Detailing the history, current regulatory organizations and their functions, and the Act protecting the patent system allows for full knowledge.

Research focus

From the above reviews, we can understand that many researchers have tried to understand the intellectual properties in Indian context in their own dimensions such as the relevance, growth, importance in today’s economic situation, and how we manage the intangible properties, but in this article, we are trying to focus on a decade, that is, between 2010 and 2020, how many applications have been filed and how many have been grants and how many are in force, if we understand that it will help us in assessing the rate at which the patents are being granted to Indian inventors.

Scope of the study

The area of intellectual properties is wide and vast because the phase in which the global economy is growing is rapid and dynamic; automatically, the Indian economy is also under the same pressure of survival, so in such a dynamic environment, the business organizations are in strong need of protecting their business ideas and trade secrets so that the real inventor of the idea is given a privilege of being the sole owner of the business idea or invention. In the IPR, there are elements like patents, copyrights, trademarks, industrial designs, geographical indicators, and trade secrets. We have restricted our study only to the patent filing and grants and patents in force in India. The data have been fetched from the World Intellectual Property organization data center, and an effort is made to understand the rate in which the applications are being filed and the rate in which patents are granted.

Objectives

1. To understand and assess the status of India in IPR in terms of patent filing and grants.

2. To understand the progress of India in IPR, especially in patents.

3. To assess the growth rate of patent filing and grants to Indian inventors.

Statement of the problem

Intellectual properties are the emerging intangible properties which have evolved as the most important assets of business organizations as well as the country; in this context, India has made a significant growth in the filing for the IPR and grants, so in this background, India’s progress in the rate in which patent applications are filed and granted is assessed. Let us understand the phase at which Indian IPR with respect to patents are being filed and granted between 2010 and 2020.

Research design

The present study is a quantitative study and based purely on secondary data which are collected from the data published by the World Intellectual Property Rights Organization website. The data collected are arranged in tabular form, and to have an easy understanding of the trend, the data have been plotted on a graph. Primarily, there are empirical studies to assess the trend and progress of India’s patent filing and grants from 2010 to 2020.

We have not used any specific statistical tools for data analysis, except the tabular forms of data which are plotted on a graph using MS Excel, and based on this, data are analyzed and followed by interpretation.

Data analysis and interpretation

The graph clearly depicts the rate of applications being filed, and every year, there is an approximate increment in the number of applications being filed; that is, there is an exponential growth in the number of applications. It also shows that India is vibrantly involved in inventions and innovations.

From Table 1, we can understand that the total number of applications filed in 2010–2020 is 509,643, out of which 149,579 are resident applications and 360,064 are non-resident. If it is averaged, every year, India has been filing 46,331 applications.

In the period of 2010–2020, the total number of applications filed is 509,643 and the total number of patents granted is 111,668, which means approximately the ratio between application filing and grant is 5:1. Similarly, 10,606 patents are granted against 46,331, Table 2.

Table 3 and graphs show the comparison of the number of patents granted and the number of applications filed along with the percentage. In the span of 2010–2020, India has recorded 21.62% of patents granted every year. The highest of patents are granted in the year with 26,361, which amounts to 46.43% in the year 2020, whereas the lowest is 3377, which amounts to 7.84% in the year 2013.

It also has to be observed that in the 4 years of time from 2017 to 2020, India has recorded a drastic hike in the patents with an average of 36.04%, which is a very positive sign.

Total number of patents in force: 613,734

Total number of patents in force applied by resident applicants: 102,046

Total number of patents in force applied by non-residents: 511,688

Average number of patents in force per year: 55,794, Table 4.

Findings

(1) The general observation is that there is a significant growth in the patent filing and grants.

(2) It can be observed that the average increase in patent applications being filed grows at the rate of 1500–1800 from 2010 to 2016, but from 2017 to 2020, there is steep growth in the number of applications; to be more precise, there are around 10,000 applications filed in those years.

(3) On an average, 10,606 patents are granted every year; a monthly average of 883 and daily 29 patents are granted.

(4) At the end of 2020, India has recorded 613,734 patents in force, and in the period of 2017–2020, that is, in 4 years, 291,095 patents are in force.

(5) The average of 2016–2020 is 72,773, which is the highest in the whole decade.

(6) The comparison between patent applications filed and patents granted shows the highest in 2019 and 2020, with 23,578 patents granted against 53,627 applications, which amounts to 43.39%.

(7) Similarly, in the year 2020, totally, 26,361 patents are granted against 56,771 applications, with 46.43%, and by the year 2021, it has crossed 50%.

Conclusion

India has been developing in patent filing and grants phenomenally in the tenure of 2010–2020, with 92,897 patents in force, which is considerably a good record. It is due to the initiatives taken by the government like 10% rebate on small organizations, educational institutions, and so on. If the same pace is continued, by 2030, India will have around 2 lakh patents, which is good to Indian standards, but if it is compared with those of China and USA, India is not even closer because China has registered whopping 530,137 patents and in USA, 351,993 patents are granted in the year 2020 alone; further, China adds 14% extra grants every year. India stands in the seventh position in patent grants in the year 2020, with 26,361 patents. We all know that India is emerging as one of the leading economies of the world, and developing technologies are in the forefront and these technologies are in need of legal protection; in that sense, IPR helps the inventors, business men, and economy. We can say that India is progressive in patent filing and patent grants, and it follows its own pace, but it is certainly not on par with China and USA, which needs to be looked into by the Government, research institutes, scientists, academicians, and educational institutes so that if an overall coordination is ensured, certainly Indian patent progression can be matched with China and USA.

Footnotes

1. ^ https://www.wipo.int/portal/en/

References