Intellectual property rights' filing on rise amid local defence push

Indian companies' intellectual property rights (IPR) filings are on the rise.

There have been nearly 5884 Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) filings and over 2,567 successful applications so far, according to Department of Defence Production data. HAL leads among DPSUs with a total of 2413 IPRs filed, and it needs to file 177 more IPRs to meet the target of 2530 IPRs.

The target set till March 2025 for IPR is 6900 for all the organisations.

The surge comes amid a drive by Defence Public Sector Undertakings' (DPSUs) to enhance innovation and the government's push through Mission Raksha Gyan Shakti. Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) accounts for approximately 41 percent of all intellectual property rights filings, while Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) holds about 21 percent (chart 1).

Meanwhile, defence exports in financial year 2024-25 (FY 25), so far have already exceeded that of in FY 17 and FY 18, as per data updated on Department of Defence Production.

Total defence exports since FY17, the earliest for which data is available on the dashboard, is nearing Rs 90,000 crore. It has touched Rs 89,178 crore as of May 15. It was at Rs 1,522 crore in FY 17, and increased to Rs 10,746 crore in FY 19. It dipped to Rs 9116 crore and Rs 8435 crore in FY 20 and FY 21, respectively. It began increasing in the subsequent years. In FY 25, it has already touched Rs 4862 crore (chart 2).

In 2023, India's military expenditure accounted for 2.4 per cent of its GDP, as reported by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). Additionally, India's military spending constituted 8.15 per cent of its total government expenditure in the same year. In 2023, India was the fourth largest military spender in the world, at $83.5 billion ahead of advanced economies like Germany ($66.8 billion) and the UK ($74.9 billion).

Private companies have received export authorizations worth Rs 2,105 crore in FY 25. It was Rs 13,119 crore in FY 24. They account for nearly 60 per cent of exports on average over the five-year period including FY25 (chart 3).

The public sector may be constrained in its ability to meet the growing demands of the armed forces, according to an Observer Research Foundation October 2023 paper authored by Jawaharlal Nehru University Associate Professor Laxman Kumar Behera.

“Despite decades of existence, not a single Indian company has found a place in the world’s top 20 defence companies even though the country is now the fourth largest military spender in the world. ...The government is taking steps to reform the public sector, even as it accords greater importance to the private sector for defence manufacturing and, increasingly, cutting-edge innovation,” it noted.