Infosys Ltd, the country’s second largest software exporter, leads in the number of patents filed by large Indian information technology (IT) services companies. According to the data compiled by equity research firm Barclays, the Indian firm filed 159 patents in the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) during the last five years.
Globally, the only IT company that has beat Infosys in the patent race is Accenture Plc, which filed 345 patents during the period. In India, Infosys was followed by Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, the country’s largest software exporter, with 43 patent applications and Wipro Ltd with eight. HCL Technologies Ltd filed the least number of patents among the country’s top-four IT firms at four, filed in the current year, the report said.
Since patent filings are often done in different jurisdictions, it is difficult to compare one company with another. For the sake of uniformity, Barclays Research compiled the patents filed in the USPTO, details of which are in the public domain. “This also becomes pertinent because the largest client concentration for the Indian majors is in the US,” the report said.
According to Barclays, Infosys has filed 354 patents in different jurisdictions during the last five years, out of which 82 have been granted so far. In 2012, the company had a total of 474 patents waiting for approval in different jurisdictions.
Infosys is one of the few Indian IT services companies that spends heavily on research and development (R&D). During the last three years, the company’s spend on R&D as a percentage of its revenues remained at 2.1 per cent, which is the best in the industry.
With Infosys focusing on the product and platform business for growth in the future, the focus on R&D is expected to increase.