Indian patent output 1990-2007
This section on India’s patent output is based on the contributions of patents owned by the Indian assignees only and does not include patents taken by foreign assignees in India.
Patents are one of the key outputs of the science and technology system, and an important link between research & development and the marketplace. Patents are only one of many kinds of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs), and are of great economic importance when they result in new products or new processes for making existing products better or even entirely new industries. They give the owner an exclusive right to exploit those new products or processes for a maximum of 20 years. The quantitative analysis of the grant or application of patents may provide significant insights about the inventiveness of a nation and its key performers of research and development.
The Indian patenting activity grew amidst changes taking place in its domestic and global economic policy environment. The post-1991 economic policies of the Government of India marked a new phase in its development strategy, which aimed at increasing the role of the private sector, redirecting scarce public sector resources to areas where the private sector is unlikely to enter, and opening up the economy to trade and foreign investment. The twin objectives of the reforms were to promote competition by eliminating protection, and to "…simultaneously increase "… the ability of producers to meet such competition by removing policy barriers and distortions. This phase overlapped with the culmination of the ongoing trade negotiations under General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) leading to the conclusion of the agreement on trade related aspects of the intellectual property rights (TRIPS) and the setting up of the World Trade Organization on 1 January 1995.
At the same time, the Government of India launched a national campaign for creating awareness about patents and intellectual property rights (IPR) in the country. Several initiatives were taken to modernize the administration of the process of granting of patents by the national patent office, bringing about changes in its patent laws, and strengthening management of intellectual property rights at the micro-organizational level in government R&D organizations, universities and industries. The government R&D institutes, universities, non-profit organizations and in-house R&D units in public or private sector industries are the major players in performing research and development in the national science and technology system. This discussion follows Indian patenting activity as an indicator of the output of its science and technology system.
The data for analyzing the Indian patent output was extracted from the patent collections of United States Patent Office – granted patents, European Patent Office – granted patents, German patents granted, Patent Abstracts of Japan – unexamined patent applications, WIPO PCT publications, and INPADOC patent collections (granted or filed) covering data from 42 different countries including India. The Delphion patent database ("https://www.delphion.com/) was used and a search was made to obtain patents owned by Indian assignees for the period 1990 to 2007. It included data on patent number, publishing country, date of publication, name of assignee, team of inventors, and the international patent class. The Delphion database included data of patents granted by India to Indian assignees, up to 2004 only. Data for the period 2005 – 2007 were taken from the website of Indian Patent Office which included the data on patents granted by India. The data was cleaned by removing patents, which for any reasons did not belong to Indian assignees. The data of patents granted to Indian assignees in India obtained from Indian Patent Office website was also cleaned to remove irrelevant patents. The names of the assignees were standardized by following unique name for each assignee as in some cases, the names were not uniform or properly spelt. Further, the type of the assignee was codified to indicate whether it was a domestic or foreign firm or its affiliate, domestic or foreign university, non–profit organization, government R&D institution or department, or individual domestic or foreign inventors. This resulted in a dataset of around twenty thousand patents, which was imported into SQL server database and analyzed.
Industry-led growth in patenting
The growth of patenting activity in India, impacted by changes in the economic environment, accelerated from 1993 just before the setting up of the WTO in 1995, and continued till around 1997. Subsequently India’s patent output grew at a much faster pace during 1999 – 2007 (Figure 1: India’s growth in patenting). This spurt in growth of patenting may directly be attributed to Indian industry’s growing inventiveness and competitiveness, as its share in patenting grew from about 40%
Fig 1: India's growth in patenting
patents in 1990-1999 to around 60% patents in 2000 - 2007 (Figure 2: Industry leads in patenting). During 1990-2007, Indian patent output was 26,250 patents wherein the patentees from industry sector contributed 57% of the total patents, from university sector 5% and from the government sector 21% of the total patents. Individual inventors contributed 17% of the total patents during this period.
Fig 2. Industry leads in patenting
The trend in the patenting activity indicates growing inventive competence at the enterprise and the university levels, respectively. The analysis indicates that the patenting activity of the government research institutes has broadly remained in the range of 20% - 30% of the total Indian patents. Of the total patents obtained by the patentees from the industry sector (57% of the total patents), domestic Indian firms owned about 70% patents and Indian affiliates of foreign companies about 10% patents. Foreign firms jointly owned the remaining 20% of the patents, which were either with the Indian companies or with their affiliates in the country. The share of domestic Indian firms decreased from about 74% during 1990-1999 to about 57% during 2000-2007 while the share of foreign affiliates in India during the two periods, remained same as around 20%. In contrast, the share of joint patents between foreign companies and domestic Indian companies or foreign affiliates showed an increase from just 3% patents during 1990-1999, to about 23% of the total patents during 2000-2007. The foreign firms have played a positive role in the growth of Indian patenting activity wherein their joint patents with domestic Indian firms as well as with their affiliates have increased significantly.
Joint patenting activity
Of the total patents obtained by Indian assignees during 1990-2007, about 15% patents were jointly owned by performers in industry, university or government sectors. The foreign firms were joint owners of patents largely with their own affiliates (88% patents) in comparison to the Indian companies (11% patents). Indian firms jointly owned just about 1% of these joint patents between themselves. The domestic industry had joint ownership of patents with Indian universities (42 patents) and with government institutions (77 patents) during 2000-2007, which is a rise from 12 patents with universities and 4 patents with government institutions, respectively, during 1990-1999. Similarly, the joint ownership of patents between government institutions shows an increase (82 patents) during 2000-2007 over 4 patents during 1990-1999. The joint ownership of patents between Indian universities was almost negligible
Lead Assignees
Industry: There were around 1,900 unique assignees (other than individual assignees) that participated in the Indian patenting activity during 1990-2007. Of these nearly 80% assignees belonged to the industry sector, 10% assignees to the government sector, 6% to the university sector and 4% to non-profit organizations. The leading assignees from the domestic private sector included Ranbaxy Laboratories (taken over by Daiichi Sankyo of Japan with effect from June 2008), Dr. Reddy's Laboratories, Cipla, Panacea Biotec, Biocon India, Cadila Healthcare, Lupin, Orchid Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals, Wockhardt, Nicholas Piramal India, and Torrent Pharmaceuticals. It is interesting that all these firms belong to the drugs and pharmaceuticals sector and together obtained more than 3600 patents during 2000-2007 as against just around 100 patents during 1990-1999 indicating a direct response of the Indian pharmaceuticals industry to the global challenge and competition in the field. Of the Indian public sector firms, Indian Oil Corporation, National Research Development Corporation, and Steel Authority of India Limited have shown continuously growing trend in patenting during 1990-2007. The foreign firms that obtained patents jointly with Indian companies or with foreign affiliates in India include global companies like Unilever N.V., and Unilever PLC of U.K., Dr. Reddy's Laboratories Inc., and Dr. Reddy – Cheminor Inc., of USA. Of the affiliates of foreign firms in India, the Hindustan Lever, Sun Pharmaceuticals, ST Microelectronics, and Johnson and Johnson together owned about 2900 patents in 2000-2007 in comparison to just around 300 patents in 1990-1999. Hindustan Lever limited is the outstanding performer with around 3000 patents to its credit.
University and Non-profit Organizations: The Indian Institutes of Technology, Indian Institute of Science, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, and the University Of Delhi are the leading participants from the university sector. Dr. Reddy's Research Foundation, Dabur Research Foundation, Vittal Mallya Scientific Research Foundation, Indian Jute Industries Research Association, and Dalmia Centre for Biotechnology are the leading non-profit research organizations in patenting.
Government: The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research pioneered Indian patenting activity during 1990-2007 and is the leading patent assignee with more than four thousand patents to its credit. Most other government S&T departments and institutions increased their patenting activity particularly after 2000. These include Defence Research and Development Organization, Department of Biotechnology, Department of Science and Technology, National Institute of Immunology, Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Science & Technology, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics, and the Department of Atomic Energy.
Expanding patent base across countries
The patents can be used to identify and develop new brands, to maintain present markets or create new ones or to create a business presence in different countries. When used wisely, patents may even be the difference between a company’s success and its failure. A feature common to all successful companies is their focus on innovations and an acute awareness of the value of their intangible assets. In particular, they understand the role patents play in maintaining their competitive edge and in enhancing their market position. As globalization continues to shape patent activity, companies now recognize the need to protect their patent assets around the globe.
Indian assignees have increasingly been penetrating foreign markets and protecting their inventions by taking patents abroad since the initiation of economic reforms in early 1990s. The number of countries in which Indian assignees have sought protection for their inventions through patents rose from 29 countries in 1990-1994 to 52 countries in 2000-2004 – a growth of 79% and 49 countries just in three year period 2005-2007 (Figure 3: Expanding patent base across countries).
Fig 3: Expanding patent base across countries
In terms of the number of patents, the Indian assignees had maximum interest in protecting their inventions in the region of North America, viz. USA and Canada till 2000-2004, after which their patenting activity expanded significantly in Europe, Asia and Latin America (Figure 4: Region wise spread of India’s patenting activity). Of these, Germany, UK, Austria, Norway, Hungary, Poland, Denmark, Czech Republic, and Portugal in Europe, China and South Korea in Asia and Brazil, Mexico and Argentina in Latin America emerged significant destinations. The Indian patenting activity in France, Russia and Commonwealth of Independent states (CIS) has been gradually reducing since 1990-94. There is negligible interest of Indian assignees in taking patents in Japan and the African region.
Technological areas
International Patent Classification (IPC) is a comprehensive subject classification system applied to all patents by the patent issuing authorities. [International Patent Classification, 7th edition, World Intellectual Property Organisation, Geneva, 2000.] Each patent indicates at least one major international patent class − indicating the technological area to which the invention belongs. When a patent corresponds to more than one international patent classification indicating multiple technological areas, it is assigned to the technological areas represented by the first referred to international patent classification. This data may indicate the diversity of technological areas and of competences of R&D performing institutions. On an aggregate level, it reflects the core technological strengths with in the country.
Fig 4. Region wise spread of India’s Patenting activity
The analysis of the international patent classes of Indian patents across the world indicates that these patents belonged to around 400 technological areas during 1990 to 2007. Of these, significantly high patenting activity took place in the areas of chemistry, chemical technology and related areas, and drugs and pharmaceuticals. The Indian assignees modestly contributed to the patent activity in the areas of mechanical engineering including machine tools, engine, pumps and turbines, and aviation and transport. There is a recognizable growth of Indian patenting activity in newer areas like food products and technology, micro-organism and genetic engineering, information and communication technologies including computer and automated business equipment, optical computing devices, electrical digital data processing and telecommunication.
Citations to Indian Patents
The citation to a patent may be given by later patents due to several reasons. For example, it may be given to relate to the technological subject matter of the patent or to indicate the prior art or improvement upon the patented invention. More importantly, it is believed that more a patent is cited by others the more valuable it is likely to be. It is from this perspective that an analysis of citations to Indian patents has been made to reflect upon their relative valuation.
In the Delphion patent database, the search was made to obtain the list of patents owned by Indian assignees in USPTO during 1990 to 2007. A list of 2132 patents was obtained. The data on citations made by later patents for each of these patents in their full text or as prior art on their front page was obtained and analysed.
Table 1 gives the overall pattern of citations received by Indian patents during 1990 to 2007. It is observed that of the 2,132 patents only 764 patents (36%) received one or more citations. Significantly, one percent of these patents (ten patents) received 457 citations (more than 20 citations per patent; fifteen percent of the total citations) indicating their high value and continued technological significance. There were 179 patents (23% of the total) that received 1,494 citations (49% of the total); citation per patent being five or more than five but less than twenty. The remaining 585 patents (76% of 764) received 1076 citations (35% of the total); citation per patent being less than five. The assignees whose patents received significant number of citations included the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research,Dr. Reddy's Research Foundation, Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited, Panacea Biotec Limited, ST Microelectronics Pvt Ltd., Rover Writing Instruments, Anand International, Indian Oil Corporation, and Dabur Research Foundation. The technological areas that received significant citations included drugs and pharmaceuticals and contraceptive or other devices for use in medical or veterinary sciences (A61K, A61F, A61M), chemistry or chemical technologies (C07D, B01J, C07C), electric communication, transmission, and digital data processing (H04B, G06F), measuring or testing viz. investigating materials by analyzing their chemical or physical properties (G01N) and design patents.
Table 1: Pattern of citations received by Indian patents during 1990-2007
No. of citations received per patent |
No. of patents |
Total number of citations |
Cumulative citations |
154 |
1 |
154 |
154 |
50 |
1 |
50 |
204 |
48 |
1 |
48 |
252 |
41 |
1 |
41 |
293 |
35 |
1 |
35 |
328 |
30 |
1 |
30 |
358 |
29 |
1 |
29 |
387 |
25 |
1 |
25 |
412 |
24 |
1 |
24 |
436 |
21 |
1 |
21 |
457 |
20 |
4 |
80 |
537 |
19 |
2 |
38 |
575 |
18 |
2 |
36 |
611 |
17 |
5 |
85 |
696 |
16 |
1 |
16 |
712 |
15 |
6 |
90 |
802 |
14 |
6 |
84 |
886 |
13 |
6 |
78 |
964 |
12 |
6 |
72 |
1036 |
11 |
9 |
99 |
1135 |
10 |
10 |
100 |
1235 |
9 |
14 |
126 |
1361 |
8 |
8 |
64 |
1425 |
7 |
25 |
175 |
1600 |
6 |
26 |
156 |
1756 |
5 |
39 |
195 |
1951 |
4 |
56 |
224 |
2175 |
3 |
91 |
273 |
2448 |
2 |
141 |
282 |
2730 |
1 |
297 |
297 |
3027 |
Total |
764 |
3027 |
|
To summarize, the analysis of Indian patent output indicates that the spurt in growth of patenting is directly attributable to the Indian industry’s growing inventiveness and competitiveness. From the Government sector, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research has greatly contributed to the patenting activity both with in India as well as abroad. Indian industry has expanded its base across countries and has sought protection of its inventions in countries synonymous with their commercial interests. The academic sector has also oriented its thrust towards patenting. However, joint patenting activity needs to be encouraged between institutions of different sector viz. industry, government or universities. Areas of chemistry, chemical technology and related areas, and drugs and pharmaceuticals continue to be the areas of strong Indian patenting activity. There is a recognizable growth of Indian patenting activity in newer areas like food products and technology, micro-organism and genetic engineering, and information and communication technologies. Collaboration with foreign companies appears to have accelerated patenting in some of these areas.
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