Connecting the dots to boost the patent ecosystem

Source: The post is based on the article “Connecting the dots to boost the patent ecosystem” published in The Hindu on 14^th September 2022.

Syllabus: GS 3 – issues relating to intellectual property rights.

Relevance: About India’s patent ecosystem.

News: The recent report of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM), ‘Why India Needs to Urgently Invest in its Patent Ecosystem?’, highlights the significance of a robust patent system for a knowledge economy and for the promotion of technological innovations.

What are the key findings of the report on India’s patent ecosystem?

The rising share of residents in the total number of patent applications filed in India has more than doubled during the last decade.

For the first time, the number of patent applications by residents has surpassed that of foreign applications during the last quarter of the financial year 2021-22.

What are the suggestions of the report to improve India’s patent ecosystem?

The report expressed the long pendency of processing patent applications in India as a major concern. So the report suggested a) Increasing the efficiency of processing patent applications, b) Investigate the patent ecosystem more closely to connect the dots so that appropriate measures are adopted to improve the patent ecosystem.

What are the other concerns in India’s patent ecosystem?

Increasing abandoned applications: The total number of patent applications to the Indian patent office has increased by 48% between 2010-11 and 2020-21. Similarly, the number of abandoned patent applications also increased by almost 350% during this period.

These applications do not meet the requirements under Sections 9(1) and 21(1) of the Patents Act.

The applicants did not refile or submit specifications due to a) applicants are not confident, b) the long pendency discouraging applicants from following up on their applications.

Incentives to file patents and associated issues: Since the National Intellectual Property Rights Policy 2016, a lot of emphasis has been attached to the filing of patent applications. This resulted in encouraging the filing of patent applications even when the innovator knows that their claims will not pass scrutiny.

India’s poor performance in industry-academia collaboration: India’s score for the industry-academia collaboration indicator has declined over the last few years, from 47.8 in 2015 to 42.7 in 2021. Consequently, India’s ranking in this indicator in the GII declined from 48 to 65 during this period.

Note: India’s improvements in some other indicators have resulted in India’s overall ranking in the GII improving from 81 in 2015 to 46 in 2021.

The draft of the National Auto Policy 2018 points out that collaboration between the industry and academia in India has been limited to niche research areas that have low commercial significance.

What should be done to improve India’s patent ecosystem?

To improve India’s patent ecosystem, India needs to a) Eliminate perverse incentives in the system that promote patent filing, b) Fasten the entire patent filing system, c) Promote the quality of patent applications and d) Increase the collaboration between academia and industry.