The pandemic has fuelled innovation led by universities, FMCG players, pharmaceutical and medical organisations.
“During the pandemic, inventions and patent filings increased due to organisations’ quest to solve problems associated with the present global crisis. Today there is a problem which everyone wants to either solve or prevent,” Jignesh Bhate, CEO of Molecular Connections Research Pvt Ltd (a global IP consulting firm) told
“More than 51,839 patent applications were published in 2020 as against 49,557 patent publications in 2019 in India. Of the total patent applications published in 2020, about 3,000 belong to Indian applicants,” he added.
“There is no dearth of innovative product rollouts from India. From small to big, everyone had some products to introduce keeping the global pandemic in mind,” explained Bhate.
“We witnessed innumerable products especially targeting health and hygiene in the last year, for example — surgical and herbal masks, diagnostic systems and sanitiser systems. A lot of products have been rolled out but not necessarily patented, as the main focus for most of them is to capture the present market. Also, patenting in India is a time-consuming process,” he added.
The company has introduced Indian Patents Legal Status (IPLS) wherein one could derive accurate and granular legal status information of patents published in India.
Talking about the collaborative ecosystem, Bhate said “Collaboration took a back seat when the pandemic broke out initially, but then it was evident-- to overcome the new challenges collaborations had to go on and India is doing great. Testimony to the fact is recent inflow of funds for so many Indian start-ups.”