Where Does India Rank in Global Intellectual Property Filings?

Due to the rapidly growing technology making it easy to generate new ideas, create unique products, and enhance creativity, almost every individual and organization is striving to come up with something that can profit them. Nevertheless, this phenomenon results in increasing the competition that, in turn, leads to issues like copying and infringement of one another’s valuable assets. In this instance, Intellectual Property Protection appears as the best source to keep a person’s assets secure, and this is why Intellectual Property (IP) filing activities are continuously growing. Indeed, almost every nation in the world is witnessing an increase in IP filings. For instance, India, with a remarkable rise in trademark, industrial design, and patent filings, has achieved the top tenth rank among 49 countries positioned based on the total IP filing (resident and abroad) activities. As per the reports, the nation saw a hike of more than 20% in trademark filings, 13.6% in the industrial design fillings, and 7.5% in the applications for getting Patent Protection.

When it comes to overall, i.e., global upsurge in the IP filings, patent applications exceeded 3.3 million, which represents a growth of 5.2% in comparison to 2017. Trademark Applications totaled 14.3 million, up 15.5%, and Industrial Design filing projects amounted to 1.3 million. With around 50% of the total IP filings, including trademarks, designs, and patents, China has made the maximum increase in the global IP filings. In comparison to the IP applications filed in 2017, China observed over 160,400 more filings in the year 2018.

Though the second rank achiever – the US saw trademark filing activities rise by 4.3% yet a 1.6% decline in patent filings in 2018 is a concerning fact. It is the first fall that the country came across in the previous decade.

Asia has been developing as the universal hub for IP applications, according to Francis Gurry, WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) director-general.

Domestic Patent Applications, in India, reached 34% in 2018-19 from just 22% in 2013-14. As per the Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) report – including, information technology (IT), computer science, and science, almost every industry is adding to the significant rise in overall IP filings of the country. For example – Wipro and TCS (Tata Consultancy Services) – the two IT firms were positioned at first and second place respectively while the seven-year-old-startup Hike was ranked third in terms of applying for patents in the field of IT. Moreover, the India-based Kalvin Bharti Mittal-led firm has filed 66 patents. Although the company till now has not revealed the reason behind filing such a wide range of patent applications, it has been working in the field of research and development (R&D), encompassing Computer Vision, Social Network Analysis, and Natural Language Processing (NLP). The recently launched Hike Patent Program by the firm focus on incentivizing its employees with grants and rewards besides giving legal and market directions to patent filers.

In addition to the firms mentioned above, several other enterprises and entrepreneurs are actively participating in patent filings in India. It puts light on the fact that the individuals, as well as companies, comprehend the crucial role intellectual property fillings play in their professional lives. Well, it enables them to knowingly or unknowingly contribute to the growth of the nation’s IP filings. Furthermore, the government is also realizing the importance of encouraging the citizens to come up with new inventions, designs, etc., and thus, go for more and more IP fillings. And to make this happen in large numbers, the departments are continuously making efforts; for example – the Ministry of Commerce and Industry has recently proposed a reduction to Rs. 1,600 from Rs. 4,000 in Patent filing fees for startups and MSMEs.

Finally, with the growing usage of the internet and technology and nearly 60% of the Indian population to be young minds, it is possible to bring the nation among the top five IP fillings countries in the world in the future. Nonetheless, as the boost in the innovations will increase the IP filings and vice-versa, it is not at all the responsibility of the government or citizens alone to make efforts for this. Instead, both should help each other as it is the matter of securing the entire country’s IP assets and filing ranking. For more visit: https://www.trademarkmaldives.com