Innovation , a distant dream ?

Innovation , a distant dream  ?

Writing in today's ( July 19 , 2015 ) Business Standard , Arindam Majumder provides following interesting facts about patents :

>    No of patents filed last year

     *  Whole World..................... 214,500

     *  USA................................    61,492

     *  Japan..............................    42,459

     *  China...............................   25,539

     *  India...............................      1,349

 

>    Only one Indian entity features on the list of the top 10 recipients of Indian

      patents

>   Collectively , the IITs filed  342  patents

That article also quotes Mr Narayan Murthy , expressing his anguish at the lack of innovations coming out of our IITs and Research Labs

True , but while lamenting this poor state of affairs , we should also examine what causes this poor state

Here are my guesses :

>   PATENT - FILING  TIME

     Whereas , it takes months to get a patent approved in Developing Countries , it takes years in India ( see my old blog below )

>   PATENT-  FILING  COST

   In India , it costs lakhs of rupees ( fees of Patent Attorney ) . Abroad , it takes lakhs of dollars

>   PATENT  PROTECTION  COST

It costs a fortune ( whether in India or Abroad ) , to protect your patent in a court of law . Often , more than the monetary benefit derived from it  !

And with never-ending appeals , it takes years to settle the matter

For Indian Innovators , fighting a patent litigation in Foreign Courts , is an impossible task

>   PATENT  REGIME

India's Patent Laws are considered " weak " , especially , in case  of Pharma / Chemical patents , in respect of " Product Patent "  vs  " Process Patent "

There is also a provision whereby , Government of India can force a Foreign Patent holder to " license " it compulsorily , to an Indian applicant who wants to exploit that patent ( of course , on reasonable licensing fees  ! )

>  PATENT  BENEFITS

Abroad , when a scientist working in a Educational Institute or a Research Lab , invents something for which ,even if a patent gets applied for in the name of that Institute , he too gets a percentage of future royalties , when that patent gets licensed for commercial exploitation

I don't think , Indian Inventors , benefit in this way . That takes away the incentive

>   PATENT  PRESTIGE

If the inventing scientist's name does not figure on the patent and gets replaced by the name of his boss , innovations will remain buried !

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{   Old blog dated : 26 Feb , 2012   }

Want a Patent ? Be patient !

Newspaper Pravasi ( 26 Feb 2012 ) gives following interesting – but far more distressing – info about working of India’s Patent Office in Mumbai :

Ø No of patent applications pending ………………………………… 100,000

Ø Which will take to clear ………………………………………………….. 3 years

Ø No of requests being examined / year ………………………….. 12,000

Ø Additional Patent Examiners being trained …………………….. 250

Ø Which will help clear no of applications / year ………………… 40,000

Ø New requests being received / year ………………………………… 25,000 +

Ø Annual growth-rate of requests ……………………………………… .. 20 %

I would not be surprised if Indian scientists working in foreign labs are filing more patent applications abroad than the Indian scientists working in Indian labs !

Innovation will get a huge boost if Patents can be granted – or even rejected – in 6 months !

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hemen  parekh

19  July ,  2015

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