PATENTING ACTIVTIES OF INDIAN
INNOVATORS AT USPTO & EPO
By Saranya Dash, Law Student, KIIT UNIVERSITY- SCHOOL OF LAW, Bhubaneswar,
Odisha, India, Email-ID : 1784015@[Link]
1. Introduction
When an inventor originates any ideas and associate all of them with patenting and suddenly hits
his mind what exactly is all about patent and whether patent registration is worthy? Among
several forms of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), one of an exclusive form which is known as
Patents that are granted to these inventors for their inimitable invention given by own nation
government and are considered as the most powerful tool averting from slavish copying, trading,
mere modifying or importing the inventor’s idea without the consent. When the applicant is
rewarded with the patent protection he can avail many benefits out of it like exclusive access to
every right from the time of early filing, freedom to make changes, Return on Investment,
Opportunities to get a good market reputation, Public disclosure.1
From 1911, history of Patent law in India started when the Indian Patents and Designs Act, 1911
was ratified. The present Patents Act, 1970 came into force in the year 1972, and was again
amended by the Patents (Amendment) Act, 2005, wherein product patent was stretched to all
fields of technology including food, drugs, chemicals and micro-organisms and afterwards the
provisions relating to Exclusive Marketing Rights (EMRs) have been repealed and provision for
enabling grant of compulsory license, pre-grant and post-grant opposition have been introduced.2
With the span of time-wheel, we can see that many individuals, companies (public or private),
communities and nations are working persistently on innovation which is crucial for value
creation, competitive danger and sustainable economic growth and Innovation ecosystem of a
nation depends upon 3 primary factors, namely, technology environment, business environment,
and policy environment.3 Patenting Activities carried out by the Indian innovators are extremely
rocking in the field of foreign patent filing in past few years. This peak is possible due to
upgradation of IT Infrastructure and related services, increase manpower and computerisation,
availability of comprehensive e-filing facilities on 27x7 basis, introduction of electronic payment
gateways for PCT application fees for avoiding delays, and other necessary improvements in
Patent awareness that indicates the Indian Inventors are more signalled and want protection as
much as possible.
2. Indian Innovators and their International Patenting Activities
No doubt Inventions by the Inventors in this high end development in technology is like a boon
and blessings to the world because this helps to revolutionise several fields including medicines,
agriculture, technology, chemistry, etc. The inventors of TVS Motors, Bosch, Tata Motors, and
Mahindra & Mahindra have topped the list of R&D innovators in the automobile industry and in
May 2017, Tata Group publicized that the group has exhibited more than 3,300 instigated
innovations over the last two years.4 India’s pharmaceutical market is highly fragmented, with
300 large & 18,000 mid-sized & small companies and country’s pharma industry accounts for
about 1.4 per cent of the global pharma industry in value terms which is considered as one of the
fastest growing industry.
1
Advantages of getting a Patent, What are the benefits of getting a patent in India?, available at:
[Link] (July 29, 2019).
2
Vijay Pal Dalmia, Background, Patents law in India, available at:
[Link] (December 18,
2017).
3
Uday S. Racherla, Historical Evolution of India’s Patent Regime and its Impact on Innovation in the Indian
Pharmaceutical Industry, available at: [Link] (September
7, 2019).
4
Innovations and Patents June 2017, available at: [Link]/download/[Link]
Several factors such as manufacturing excellence, cost competitiveness, trained human capital
and robust infrastructure are known to have created Indian pharma’s success story. Due to
excessive development in science and technology, the Indian innovators are much attracted for
the patent protection across different international patent offices. Some Indian Inventors brought
excellent innovations for country’s defence sector. Some of them are- INS Vikrant (An Indian
Indigenous Aircraft Carrier in 2017), Agni- V missile (Indigenously developed by DRDO),
Arihant Class Submarines (with its launch in 2009 India joined an elite group of nations having
nuclear powered submarines which is developed by HSL), Tejas (2 nd Supersonic aircraft by HAL
in July 2016 and many others.5 Inventors mind is not only limited to development in the
technological and pharma sector but our Indian Innovators had stepped into innovations in the
defence sector too. Patents are having many sectors as Chemicals, Pharmaceuticals, Machinery,
Electrical equipment, Transport, Electronics, Instruments, Miscellaneous, and Biotechnology.
India Owned Patents have touched all the 9 sectors. However, out of the 43 technology sub-
sectors, patenting activity was observed in 26 sub-sectors out of which ‘Pharmaceutical’ and
‘Chemicals’ were major areas of India’s patenting activity. There was not much patenting
activity in the sectors ‘Electronics’, and ‘Electrical equipment’. This indicates that innovation
activity is taking place in this high technology science based area, which is mainly dominated by
advanced technology leaders.
3. Data Collection
The data was collected from various patent databases that are US patent database (USPTO) 6 and
European patent database (EPO)7. Searches were made in the USPTO and EPO electronic
databases using the advance search on the statistics of Indian innovators filing patents in these
office. A search was also made in the Gazette of India and IPO 8 databases for analysing the
applications made via PCT route. Patenting activities of Indian Innovators were analysed for a
period of approx. previous 5 years. Such duration of analysis is taken up exclusively relating to
the patenting activities and trends by the Indian Innovators in the International podium.
4. Results and Discussion
The data was examined with respect to : (a) Indian innovators patenting activities and trends in
USPTO, (b) Indian innovators patenting activities and trends in EPO. The analysis has been used
to indicate the area of interest by the Indian innovators in their innovation and highlighting the
current trending sector and also the growth of such trends in paten filing by the Indian
Innovators.
5. Indian Innovators Patenting Activities in USPTO
United States Patents and Trademark office (USPTO) which is an agency that grants US patents
and trademarks registration for growth, development and improvement of science and useful arts
by locking or giving protection for a limited duration to the authors and inventors with an special
rights to their writing and discoveries. Since, currently India is having a dynamic progress in the
previous years with respect to science and technology which is why more inclined for patenting
that we analysed as more than 52% in route of PCT. This indicates that the Indian Innovators and
their inventions are high enough and it is quite necessary to protect. As it is very well known that
anything made under the sun by a man is patentable. 9 So our Indian innovators is exactly doing
the same, progressing on the ideas-creation and finally coming out with the invention and
patenting. The below mentioned figure indicates statistical indicators 2019 at USPTO for patent
application filed by different 5-IPs region.
5
Patenting activities of Indian Innovators in Defence Economic Times, April.2019
6
USPTO Official site, available at: [Link]
7
EPO Official site, available at: [Link]
8
IPO Official site, available at: [Link]
9
Diamond v. Chakraborty, 100 S. Ct. 2204 (1980)
IN TERN ATION AL PATEN T APPLICATION S AT USPTO 2 0 1 9
EPC States Japan Korea China US Others
Total, 1,338 patents were filed in 2018-19 out of which 59.4 percent were technology patents
with computer technology, communication technology, and AI being the top domain areas by the
Indian Innovators in USPTO.10 Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, Wipro, and HCL hits top
filers list and among the non-tech patents (40.6 percent) in 2018-19, the top and trending sectors
areas were chemistry and chemical compositions, pharmaceuticals, and mechanical, and
structural inventions.11 The maximum filers involved Reliance Industries Ltd, Sun Pharma,
Welspun, and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd. Indian start-ups filed over 280 technology
patents during 2015-2019 with max patents being filed in the sector of healthcare and medical
devices.12
AI, top in the emerging technologies sector with 330 patents filed for the 2015-18 period. Indian
Innovators also had patenting activities in Cyber Security (193), IoT (107) and cloud computing
(88) and the study also emphasized the patent growth in newer application expanses including
cyber security (96), digital payments (31), e-commerce (87) and navigation (58).13
Below mentioned figure displays the number of U.S. patents granted to Independent Indian
Inventors as distributed by calendar year of grant from (pre 2002-2018) at USPTO where we can
observe that by the year 2009-till present there is an increase in the patent filings by the Indian
resident at USPTO office. The main reason for the downfall of during 2002-2010 was that India
was at the developing stage of science and technologies due to lack of R&D in science sector and
low financial investment and less IP awareness is the main cause of it. Inventions during 2002-
2009 was stable or we can per se say was showing no progress. But subsequently after 2011 we
can observe that R&D Funding for the various entities and Indian Organizations was increased
and more IP awareness and more attention helped these Indian innovators to file for patents
across the globe. As a country, Indian innovators can further brace its potential as an innovation
hub through more investments in research and strategic collaborations.
IN DIA N IN N OV ATORS P A TEN T F ILIN G AT U SP TO
5000
4500
4000
3500
3000
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
0
Pre- 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
2002
10
Areas of Patent filings by Indian Innovators Press Trust of India, April. 26, 2020.
11
Ibid.
12
Id.
13
Indian Innovators & patenting activities Business Today, April. 27, 2019.
6. Indian Innovators Patenting Activities in EPO
European Patent Office (EPO) is came out from European Patent Convention (EPC) which
provides a legal framework for granting of European Patents (centralised procedure). It has 5
offices and headquarter is located at Munich. The below mentioned figure indicates statistical
indicators 2019 at EPO for patent application filed by different 5-IPs region.
I NTE R NATI ONAL PATE NT APPL I CAT I ONS AT E PO 2019
EPC States Japan Korea China US Other
To get a patent, there are 3 routes i.e.- European Route, National Route and International
Route.14 Indian Innovators normally follows this International route where the applicant has to
file a PCT application then application enters to European phase and then finally European
search and examination procedures begins. Both national and international patent filings by
Indians have increased considerably in 2012/13, by 11% and 32% respectively. 15 Below
mentioned figure depicts the patent filing of Indian Innovators at EPO for the year 2013-2018.
IN DIAN IN N OV ATORS P ATEN T F ILLIN G A T EP O
25000
20000
15000
10000
5000
0
2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
During 2013-15, there was decline due to less investment in R&D in the country and less
development in the technology progress. The main activities of Indian innovators were in
Pharma and Chemical sectors. The Computer and electronics and Mechanical sector are at the
same stage going hand in hand with their invention. And we can observe from 2015-18 there is a
positive indications of India’s preparedness in the current scenario where products were allowed
in pharmaceuticals.16 Also, the rising bar is due to collaborative projects which brought
complementary skills in the Indian innovators for having better chances of commercial
appropriation. Here, in this case CSIR17 emerges as the major patenting organization and has
topped among other patent filers. Followed by TVS Motors, IIT and finally Reliance Industries.
14
About us, (EPO official site), available at: [Link]
15
News events at EPO, available at: [Link]
16
Patents (Amendment) Act 2005, India, available at:
[Link]
17
Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, India
Below mentioned figure reveals the various technical fields with approximate percentage of
Indian entities at EPO.
TO P TECHIN CAL FIELDS PATEN TED BY IN DIAN IN N O V ATO RS AT EPO
2%
10%
32% 22%
5%
15% 14%
Electrical Chemical Biotechnology
Mechanical Computer and Electronics Pharmaceutical
Food and others
7. Conclusion
Major patenting activities done by Indian organizations is in the area of Pharma and Chemicals.
The study indicates that in developing new discoveries and obtaining the final invention is
unexpectedly increasing in previous years and this is possible due to many initiatives and
awareness taken by Indian innovators. Most importantly we observed and conclude that the
public sector is more active and in form of patenting the invention at the international system.
Even, it is expected that there will be rise in next few years for the patent filing by the Indian
residents at different international patent offices.
