Even though the number of patents being filed in India has been on the rise, the share of Indian applications has not shown any significant increase.
The office of the Controller-General of Patents, Design and Trademarks had received 43,000 patent applications from business houses and institutions across different sectors last fiscal. “This year we expect a 5-10 per cent increase in the number. However, the share of applications from Indian companies and institutions, which stood at 18-20 per cent over the last few years, rose marginally to 22 per cent last fiscal,” according to Chaitanya Prasad, Controller-General of Patents.
He feels that given the inventions being done in India, the number of patent applications should have been much higher. He attributed the trend to lack of awareness and absence of a proper intellectual property ecosystem.
The electrical and mechanical sector was the biggest contributor to the number of patent applications, followed by pharma and bio-technology.
Recruitment of examiners
Facing a rising backlog of applications, the patents office will recruit more qualified examiners in the next few years. Today, the office has a backlog of about 1.3 lakh pending applications.
“We now take about three to five years to clear any application under the special request for examination category, which we want to bring down to about one year after the recruitment drive. We receive about 35,000 applications under this category every year,” Prasad said.