Education institutes take the lead in India's sure and steady patent rise

India's share in global patent grants has increased but it ranks fourth among the five largest economies

Stanford University professor John Chowning invented an algorithm for creating music through digital synthesisers. After getting a patent in 1977, Stanford licensed it to Japan’s Yamaha Corporation for making a keyboard instrument that became a favourite of western rock bands and Indian film music composers.

In India, there is a surge in patent filings and educational institutes, including universities, lead in filing applications. Their share of patents has risen from 11 per cent in Financial Year 2021-22 (FY22) to 23 per cent in FY23. Data for previous years was unavailable. Around 1.9 million students and teachers have been taught about intellectual property under an awareness mission at “7377 educational institutes across the country”, according to the patent office’s annual report for 2022-23. Educational institutes filed 19,430 patents in FY23 compared to 7,501 in FY22 (chart 1).

Patent filings in India have increased by 63 per cent since Covid-19 hit the country early 2020. More than 82,811 patents were filed in FY23 compared to 50,659 in FY19. Patent grants increased by over 100 per cent, from 15,283 to 34,134 (chart 2).

More Indians filed patents in the country in FY23 than foreigners for the second year straight, but the majority of patents in force are held by foreigners. The latter account for 111,168 patents compared to 26,165 by Indians.

A fourth of the patents filed in India were in computer science followed by mechanical engineering (18 per cent) and chemical applications, including pharmaceutical (14 per cent).

India’s share in global patent grants has increased but it is ranked fourth among the five largest economies. China, US and Japan account for over 70 per cent of global patents. About 0.3 per cent of global patent grants were in India in 2013 which increased to 1.7 per cent in 2022.

China’s share increased from 17.8 per cent to 43.8 per cent (chart 3) in the same period, though there are apprehensions about the quality of its patents.

China’s increased focus on innovation has paid dividends in royalties. Stanford, too, earned $23 million in royalties from Yamaha before the synthesiser patent expired in 1994.