Eco Survey: Share of start-ups in patent applications rise over 5x in 5 yrs

In 2019-20, the share of start-ups in total patents filed was 3.3%; share in total patents granted was 0.51%

On Monday, in his address to the Parliament, President Ram Nath Kovind said that patent applications from start-ups in FY22 had touched 6,000, whereas start-ups had filed 20,000 trademarks in the country. Highlighting the benefits of the Scheme for Startups IPR Protection (SIPP), the President said, "The government has relaxed various norms in the patents and trademarks sector."

The Economic Survey 2021-22 also highlighted the rise in patent applications in India. The survey pointed out that patent applications had increased from 45,444 in 2016-17 to 58,502 in 2020-21. It also highlighted that the number of patents granted had increased from 9,847 to 28,391 during this period.

An analysis of data from the Economic Survey shows that the share of start-ups in India's patent applications has increased by over five times between 2016-17 and 2020-21.

While the start-up community had filed 215 patents in 2016-17, the number of filings had increased to 1,396 by 2020-21 (until December 2020). As a proportion of total patents, the share of start-ups had risen from 0.5 per cent to 2.4 per cent.

However, the increase in patent filings did not translate into more patents for the start-up community. As a proportion of patents granted, the share of start-ups had decreased from 0.38 per cent to 0.06 per cent during this period.

The year before (2019-20), the share of start-ups in total patents filed was 3.3 per cent; their share in total patents granted was 0.51 per cent.

The Economic Survey had highlighted that the share of Indian applicants in total patent applications had increased from 30 per cent in 2016-17 to 40 per cent by 2020-21.

The report highlighted that among the reasons for the delay in patents was the average pendency time for clearing of patents was 42 months for India. In contrast, it was between 15-21 months for developed economies.

Analysis of WIPO data shows that patents granted per million people in India at 21.2 per million were far lower than 378 patents granted per million in China.

India has a lower number of patent examiners than other countries as well. Compared to 615 patent examiners in India, China had 13,704 patent examiners.