Indian patents to touch global levels

By siliconindia   |   Wednesday, 14 March 2007, 17:30 IST
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Bangalore: In the next few years India will be seeing a sizzle in its patenting scene. Over a lakh of product and technology patents applications are expected to be filled annually in the country by 2010, against 25,000 in 2006 and just 4,000 in 2000. India's Intellectual property (IP) climate will undergo a dramatic shift and it is sure to change India's image among global enterprises as a 'poor protector of IP', say Indian and International patenting experts. Rajiv P Patel, patent attorney, at Fenwick & West LLP, California said, "Enterprises from across the globe have seen investing heavily in India. They are in a hurry to protect their innovations and IP through patenting." The country has attracted a large number of product engineering, and software hardware research and development firms from the US, UK and Europe. During calendar 2006, over 50 product firms entered the country, compared to 30 in the previous year and 18 in 2004. According to Caleb Gabriel, partner in intellectual property law firm K&S Partners, over 70 percent of the patents in India will be filed by MNC firms while the rest by local product firms. "Companies want to block their innovations from being copied or stolen," he says. "India offers very cost effective R&D, patenting and talent. Enterprises are increasingly hiring in-house patent consuls." US and Japan both saw over 5 lakh patent applications last year. The same was two lakh each in Europe and China, and it was 1.2 lakh in Korea. In the US, filing costs anything between $7,000 to $20,000. In India it is 60-70 percent lower. "India is increasingly becoming an R&D and product development hub for the entire world and patenting is going to be a big thing here," says John Carson, a patent expert at US law firm Knobbe Martens Olson & Bear. "In a product/technology development scenario, it?s tough for any enterprise to have control over the movement of people, technology, thoughts and ideas. So, it?s a matter of time before India gets active in patenting and IP protection. Patenting helps to lower uncertainty and fear in the minds of the innovators, since it protects them against copiers. And it protects a company from revenue erosion. The Indian Patent Office (IPO) is in the process of modernizing its offices in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata. The IPO is planning to double the number of its patent examiners to 600 by the end of this year. There is also a move to introduce special benches in high courts and the Supreme Court to handle patent and IP related cases and disputes quickly.