From one extreme to another. That seems to be the tale of patenting in India. Accussed earlier of not doing its job fast and efficiently enough, the Indian Patent Office (IPO) now seems to be in overdrive. It is being accused of over-speeding patent clearance without adequate scrutiny. This would raise questions about the quality of patents granted. The number of patents granted annually by IPO has risen sharply, while the infrastructure and the staff strength of the patent office has remained more or less the same. The number of patent examiners, whose role is critical in ensuring that only deserving inventions get intellectual property protection, has not increased since the early 2000s. Yet, over 40,000 patents have reportedly been cleared in past three years, against less than 2,000 a year before that. Obviously, approval of frivolous patents cannot be entirely ruled out. Little wonder then that the number of court cases challenging the grant of patents has also spurted in recent years. This has led to a peculiar situation where the patent office grants patents and the courts overrule them or put them on hold. The prime objective of granting patents — that is to encourage innovation — is, thus, lost. The main sufferers are the chemicals and pharmaceutical industries which account for a sizable chunk of patents.
Interestingly, the number of patent applications has risen sharply since the amendment of the Indian Patent Law in 2005, and the switch to a product patent regime, as laid down by the World Trade Organisation (WTO). This despite the fact that awareness about intellectual property protection is still insufficient in India compared to developed countries and even China. Going by the numbers put out by the Geneva-based World Intellectual Property Organisation in its 2009 report, the total applications filed in India was 28,940 in 2007, against a whopping 2,45,161 in China. India too will see these numbers rising. This means speeding up the much-needed revamping of the patent office. Better infrastructure and more trained and qualified patent examiners are needed. At present, the patent office has branch offices only in Chennai, New Delhi and Mumbai, besides its headoffice in Kolkata. More branches would be needed. The government recently conceded in Parliament the acute shortage of patent examiners but said it planned to create only 200 posts of examiners in the 11th Plan. This may not suffice as it would merely double the patent office’s staff strength while the number of patent-seekers has risen manifold and is set to surge further. One recent sensible move by the patent office has been to enter into an agreement with the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research to outsource part of the patent scrutiny work to this scientific body. But considering that even today over 70,000 patent-seekers are awaiting disposal of their applications, many more such measures would have to be conceived to clear the pending applications without putting the credibility of the patents at stake.
