China ranks 4th in patent application, India lags
Thursday, 10 February 2011, 07:01 IST   |    3 Comments
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China ranks 4th in patent application, India lags
Geneva: India remains a laggard in research and technological innovation as compared to China which has become the world's fourth largest filer of patent applications in 2010, according to the data released by World Intellectual Property Organization today. While India figured nowhere in the top 15 countries that have dominated filing of patent applications under the WIPO's Patent Cooperation Treaty, China overtook South Korea and other industrialised countries like France, Britain and the Netherlands to emerge as "the fourth ranked PCT filing country." The United States, Japan and Germany continue to rank first, second and third respectively in the global patent filings. Filing of patent applications under WIPO's Patent Cooperation Treaty enables companies to secure patent protection in various countries. It is a measure for knowledge-based economy and a barometer to judge the spread of innovation-based companies in each country. India last year witnessed a growth of 15 per cent at 1109 patents filed against 961 in 2009. But India's overall performance in filing patent applications during the last five years has remained nearly stagnant. In sharp contrast, China's "astounding growth rate" in filing new patent application under PCT increased by 56% last year to 12,337, said Francis Gurry , WIPO's director general. At a time when industrialised countries, especially the US, experienced a dip in their patent filings, the Chinese companies made spectacular strides, he said. More disturbingly, there are no Indian companies listed in the first top 99 applicants. Japan's Panasonic Corporation ranks first among global companies with 2,154 patent applications, followed by China's ZTE Corporation with 1,863, and Qualcomm Incorporated from the US with 1,677. Out of the top ten companies, six companies are from the three North-East Asian countries of Japan, Korea and China. WIPO director general said he has no immediate answer as to why India remains a laggard in filing patent applications despite sustained economic growth. "I would prefer to answer this question in five years," said Gurry, arguing that India's opening-up of its economy started in 1986 under Rajiv Gandhi administration while China began economic liberalisation in 1978. Besides, India's reliance on services sector and structure of industrial production are factors that have to be taken into account in assessing its performance on patents front, he said. Besides, several international commentators pointed out that China will overtake the U.S. as the world's leading producer of scientific knowledge in term of volume by 2020.
Source: PTI
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