Only 2.9 of every 10 patents filed in India are by Indians

BENGALURU: The number of patents filed by a US firm in India in 2016-17 was more than double of all patent applications from 50 labs under DRDO, more than 40 labs in IISc, 38 labs under CSIR, 31 NITs, 23 IITs and six major research facilities under Isro.While all these institutes together filed 781 patent applications, Qualcomm Inc — a US semiconductor and telecom equipment firm — filed 1,840 applications, according to the Controller General of Patents, Design and Trademark.India, which lags behind other countries whose patents outnumber India’s by huge margins globally, suffers the same problem even domestically with foreign countries filing way more patents than locals.In 2016-17, 45,444 patents were filed in India, of which 71% were filed by foreigners (inventors and applicants) and other foreign applicants (legal entities), while 29% were filed by Indians.The US, Japan and China together account for more patents filed in India than the entire Indian scientific, research and business communities.In a continuing trend of foreign domination, only 2.9 of every 10 patents filed in India as per data for 2016-17 are by Indians, a marginal improvement from 2.8 of every 10 patents in 2015-16. The information for 2017-18 will be released later this year.Renowned scientist Prof Roddam Narasimha says, “We don’t lack talent or entrepreneurship but we lack the ecosystem. Work in science and innovation is abysmal because there’s been a legacy of poor policy and low confidence to take risks. But that has been changing over the past few years.”Of all foreigners filing patents, 10 big companies account for 19% and data shows that Qualcomm Incorporated continues to top the list, followed by Samsung Electronics and Huawei Technologies. A countrywise break-up of patents filed shows that the US, Japan and China, which occupy the top three positions, together account for 14,636, which is 1,659 more than patents by Indians.Of the 45,444, just 10 countries filed 22,970, including countries like Netherlands (1,295), and experts say India has a long way to go before the scenario changes, even as they point out that most foreigners only file patents in India to prevent reproduction of their technology.“We need to bring in the patent culture, which is not there in all institutes. We have a handful of people whose innovations are good enough for patents, and that needs to change,” said K Kasturirangan, former Isro chairman and head of the committee formulating India’s new education policy. In the period between 2013-14 and 2016-17, 1.9 lakh patent applications were filed in India, of which 1.37 lakh (72%) were filed by foreigners.