Patent applications grow 13.6% in FY22, highest in a decade: Nasscom report

Report titled 'Unpacking India's IP Ecosystem for an Innovation-led future' says rapid growth in emerging technologies is driving innovation and emergence of new solutions across several industries

India has witnessed a significant increase in patent filings in FY2022, with a growth of 13.6 per cent year on year – the highest annual increase in the last decade, according to a report by Nasscom, the industry body of technology companies.

The report titled ‘Unpacking India’s IP Ecosystem for an Innovation-led future’ says the rapid growth in emerging technologies is driving innovation and the emergence of new solutions across several industries. The report analyses some 584,000 patents filed in India between FY2010 and FY2022.

The study says uncertainty on timelines for granting patents, and response from examiners, lack of expertise at the patent office, certain legal clauses delaying process and cost overruns for patent filing are the key challenges highlighted by stakeholders. Other roadblocks include cumbersome patent filing process, lack of recognition for patents compared to research publications, lack of software patentability and awareness on incentives and schemes across filers were also adversely impacting the growth of patents.

Global stats

In CY2021 3.4 Million were filed across the world

1.59 million applications were received by China patent office in 2021, more than double the number received at the US patent office

India ranks fifth in patent applications with 61,573 applications filed in 2021

1.8% India’s share in total patent applications filed across the world in 2021

Blockchain related patents growing at highest CAGR of 25%+ (though on a small base) over the 2010-2022

AI growing at 17% and IoT at over 15%

Out of the 584K patents filed in India between FY2010 and FY2022

266K were from the technology domain;

50%+ of technology patents were from AI, IoT, Big Data, Cybersecurity, and Blockchain domains

·        2.4% of the total patents filed in the telecommunications sector were related to emerging areas of 5G and 6G

·        Percentage of patents filed by domestic players out of all patents filed in the country:  44.4% in FY22 vs 41.6% in 2021

Huge gap compared to global counterparts

20 domestic patent applications per million population in India, compared to 1,770 in Japan as of 2021

The average pendency time on a patent in India is 3X compared to Japan

Key Challenges

Uncertainty on timelines for granting patents and response from examiners
 

Lack of expertise at the patent office
 

Certain legal clauses delaying the process
 

Cost overruns for patent filing