Increasing the number of examiners and reducing the application process time are some of the steps that can help in growing the number of patents granted in India, according to the pre-Budget Economic Survey tabled on Monday.
The Economic Survey 2021-22, tabled by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Parliament, said there has been a gradual increase in the filing and granting of patents in India.
The number of patents filed in India has gone up from 39,400 in 2010-11 to 45,444 in 2016-17 to 58,502 in 2020-21. The patents granted in India have risen from 7,509 in 2010-11 to 9,847 (2016-17) and further to 28,391 in 2020-21.
The share of Indian residents in total applications has increased from 20 per cent in 2010-11 to around 30 per cent in 2016-17 and 40 per cent in 2020-21, and consequently, India's ranking in Global Innovation Index has climbed 35 ranks - from 81st in 2015-16 to 46th in 2021.
"This is remarkable progress, but the number of patents granted in India is still a fraction compared to patents granted in China, USA, Japan, and Korea.
"According to the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), the number of patents granted in China, USA, Japan, Korea stood at 5.30 lakh, 3.52 lakh, 1.79 lakh, 1.35 lakh respectively for 2020," the Survey added.
The Survey said that while India's low expenditure on research and development (R&D) activities is one of the key reasons for relatively low patents in India compared to other countries, procedural delays and complexity of the process are also among the factors responsible.
"The procedural delays and complexity of the process is another cause for low patents in India.
"The average pendency for the final decision in acquiring patents in India is 42 months as of 2020. This is much higher than 20.8, 20, 15.8 and 15 months, respectively, for USA, China, Korea and Japan," the Survey said.
The average pendency for the final decision in acquiring patents has reduced in India from 64 months in 2017 to 52 months in 2019 and further to 42 months in 2020, it added.
In order to reduce the time taken in the application process of patents, prescribed time limits for the first step may be reduced to 14-15 months (from 18 months currently) – bringing it in line with the US and China, it said.
The delay is also on account of the low number of patent examiners in India. The number of patent examiners in India in 2020 stood at 615 compared to 13,704 in China, 8,132 in the US and 1,666 in Japan.
"This leads to a huge delay in receiving first examination report (FER) delaying the whole process... Hence, there is an urgent need to increase the number of patent examiners...a fixed timeline for grant after the opposition hearing should be put in place," it added.
The Survey highlighted that start-ups in India have grown remarkably over the last six years — up from only 733 in 2016-17 to over 14,000 in 2021-22.
More than 61,400 start-ups have been recognised in India as of January 10, 2022. During 2021, 555 districts had at least one new start-up.
As a result, India has become the third-largest start-up ecosystem globally after the US and China. Further, a record 44 Indian start-ups have achieved unicorn status in 2021, taking the overall tally of unicorns in India to 83 (with a total valuation of USD 277.77 billion), and most of these are in the services sector.
India overtook the UK to emerge as the third highest country in the number of unicorns after the US and China, which added 487 and 301 unicorns, respectively, in 2021.
The Survey said that over 5,000 recognised start-ups were added in Delhi, while 4,514 start-ups were added in Bengaluru between April 2019 to December 2021. With a total of 11,308 start-ups, Maharashtra has the highest number of recognised start-ups.
