India leads Asian peers in growth in filing patents: Report

India witnessed the highest CAGR of published patents at over 23% in Asia during 2013-2015

While the lack of innovation by India Inc has often drawn flak, a recent report is encouraging about patents published by the country’s corporates.

The report, prepared by Clarivate Analytics, which provides research-based products to companies in over 100 countries, shows that India witnessed the highest compounded average growth rate (CAGR) of published patents at over 23 per cent in Asia during 2013-2015.

The report, titled “India Innovation: Trends”, showed that patents published in India rose to 51,759 in 2015 from 43,077 in the previous year and 32,435 in 2013. Of the 51,759 patents filed in India in 2015, around 12,000 are India-priority patents.  This means that these 12,000 patents were first filed in India than anywhere else. 

While this is the highest growth in Asia, India still lags  China, South Korea and Japan in terms of the absolute number of patents filed.

Arvind Pachhapur, South Asia head at Clarivate Analytics, attributed this aspect to lack of awareness about filing patents in India in the past. While companies used to make innovations, these were not filed as patents. But, awareness is increasing and companies are protecting their intellectual property in India, he said. 

The report also says while filing of patents grew between 2013 and 2015, awareness about intellectual property among smaller corporations and general public is low.

During this period, top areas where patents were filed in India included polymers and plastics, computing, pharmaceuticals, telecommunication, electric power engineering, food & fermentation, automobiles, semi-conductors and electronics, instrumentation and measuring systems, and metallurgy.

Top companies which were in the forefront in publishing their patents included ABB, Alcatel-Lucent, General Electric, Siemens, Mahindra & Mahindra, Crompton Greaves, Infosys, Cadila Healthcare and Wipro. 

Within polymers and plastics, medical, dental and veterinary applications were the key area of focus for patents in India. This was in line with the business focus of some of the top applicants in this category such as Cadila Healthcare, Colgate Palmolive and Hindustan Unilever.

Within polymers and plastic, patents relating to mechanical engineering also saw filings. This displayed an interest by engineering companies to develop products where plastics can be used along with mechanical structures. For example, plastics are used in the automobiles sector for building the interior of the vehicles. Evidently, Tata Motors and TVS Motor feature among the top applicants. 

Within computing, the highest number of patents were filed in software products. These were filed mainly by India-headquartered IT companies such as Infosys, TCS, Wipro, and HCL.

In pharma, the highest number of patents were filed in drug combination and anti-inflammatory drugs. This was followed by natural products made out of plant extracts. Focus on natural products was in line with the popularity of ayurveda in India, the report said.