Page 1 of 7
Journal for Studies in Management and Planning
Available at
http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/
ISSN: 2395-0463
Volume 03 Issue 09
August 2017
Available online: http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/ P a g e | 1
Patenting: Global Trends and India
Mnisha Shoor
Assistant Professor of Economics,Govind National College, Narangwal,Ludhiana,Punjab
(Email id -mnisha123@yahoo.com)
ABSTRACT
Patents are an excellent source of
information and give exclusive rights to the
inventor for a specific period to appropriate
research benefits. It is particularly beneficial
for the developing countries like India that
have low R&D investment intensity. The
patent reform of 2005 introduced product
patents in all fields of science, including
pharmaceuticals, drugs, chemicals and
agriculture that were not under product
patent regime earlier. Protection and
commercialisation of patents encourage
knowledge creation, innovation and
contribute to higher productivity growth. In
this paper, we have analysed the trends in
patenting activity in different fields in India
as well as global patenting trends.
KEYWORDS: Patents, R&D, Global trends,
Trademarks, Companies
INTRODUCTION
An invention relating to a product or a
process that is new, involving inventive step
and capable of industrial application can be
patented in India. However, it must not fall
into the category of inventions that are non- patentable as provided under Section 3 and 4
of the (Indian) Patents Act, 1970. In India, a
patent application can be filed, either alone or
jointly, by true and first inventor or his
assignee.
OBJECTIVE OF STUDY
The present study seeks to achieve following
objectives :
To study the concept of patenting at world
as well as India level
To evaluate the global trends of patenting
since last few years
To analyse the trends in patenting activity
in different fields in India
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
In order to achieve the stipulated objectives of
present research, the data on patenting
activities were taken from the World
Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)
and the Indian Patent Office (IPO). The
WIPO maintains a global database of patents,
while the IPO maintains data related to
patents in India. Information covering entries
such as patent applications filed, number of
patents granted, total counts by filing office,
total residential and non-residential
applicants, patents grant by fields of
technologies, etc., were taken from the IP
database of WIPO.
To have more accuracy and rigorous
analysis of research study, the tabular and
functional analytical dots were used. The
pictorial representation of results has done in
the forms of pie charts and bar graphs.
A. Global Patenting Trends
In order to comply with the TRIPS (Trade
Related Aspects of Intellectual Property
Rights) agreement, Indian patent regime has
been made stronger . The information and
knowledge of trends in patents can also be
Page 2 of 7
Journal for Studies in Management and Planning
Available at
http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/
ISSN: 2395-0463
Volume 03 Issue 09
August 2017
Available online: http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/ P a g e | 2
used for technology forecasting and policy
formulation.
The number of patent applications filed and
granted in the world has depicted increasing
trends during the period 1985-2012. The
number of patent applications filed and
granted was 9,21,715 and 3,97,580,
respectively in 1985, and these increased to
23,47,700 and 11,34,500, respectively in
2012. The patent filing remained more or less
constant during 1985 to 1995, but increased
significantly after the TRIPS agreement in
1995. The average annual number of patent
applications filed in the world during
19851994 was 9,60,392, which increased to
15,95,950 in the post-TRIPS period (1995-
2012). The number of patents granted before
TRIPS agreement (1985-1994) was 66,06,596
and it doubled in the post-TRIPS period
(1995-2012). The average annual patent
grants during 1985-1994 was 3,92,459, while
in the post-TRIPS, it increased to 6,79,522
patents.
India has made significant changes in the
patenting regime, and has encouraged R&D
system also to protect its IPs. As a result, the
number of patents granted has increased from
1,501 in 1980 to 4,328 in 2012, but it is
negligible in comparison to other countries
selected for the study.
The general global trends for year 2015 could
be summarized as below
More than 73% of respondents filed
patents in four or more countries (up from
62% filing into four or more in 2015).
Overall patent activity and international
filing rates rose in 2016 with over 41%
filing more than half of their patent
applications overseas in 2016 (compared
to just 34% last year).
First time filing jurisdictions included
Mexico, South Africa, Australia, Turkey,
Brazil and India. The overwhelming
majority of those (96%) used the Patent
Cooperation Treaty (PCT).
The report shows an increase in filing
patent families, as nearly three quarters
filed four or more patent families.
Table 1: patent and trademark filings in one year
2015 filings 2014 filings
Growth
percentage
Patents 2888800 2680900 7.8
Utility Models 1205300 948900 27
Trademarks 8465614 7446226 13.6
Industrial Designs 1144800 1137500 0.6
Source: WIPO Statistics Database, March 2017.
table 1 clearly depicts the comparison and
growth rate of patents, trademarks , utility
models and industrial designs at aggregate
world level. For patents and trademarks, 2015
represented the sixth consecutive year that
applications increased, while applications for
utility models and industrial designs returned
to growth after declines the previous year.
Shares of IP filing activity by
region
A comparative analysis of the total patent
grants in some selected countries, viz. China,
India, North America, Japan and Europe.. The
total patent grants during the period 1980-
1990 were the highest in Europe, but it
showed a declining trend thereafter. After
Page 3 of 7
Journal for Studies in Management and Planning
Available at
http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/
ISSN: 2395-0463
Volume 03 Issue 09
August 2017
Available online: http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/ P a g e | 3
1995, the number of patent grants increased
significantly in Japan, reaching the peak in
1996 and then continued to decline until 2004.
However, after 2004, patent grants to Japan
started increasing and in fact, Japan and North
America held the higher number of patents
than any other country. The number of patent
grants in India was very low during this
period. The performance of developing
countries, except China, has not been much
impressive in terms of patent grants.
Table 2: region wise share of IP filing activity
Asia Europe
North
America
Latin
America Africa Oceania
Patents 55.3 24.1 7.9 7.7 2.7 2
Utility
Models 61.9 12.5 21.7 2.3 0.5 1.2
Trademarks 95.6 3.8 - 0.4 0 0.2
Industrial
Designs 55.3 24.1 7.9 7.7 2.7 2
Source: WIPO Statistics Database, March 2017
table 2 shows share of IP filing activity by
region where Asia received the bulk of
world IP. IP offices in Asia received the
highest numbers of applications for
patents, utility models, trademarks and
industrial designs in 2015, including
61.9% of all patent applications
worldwide and other nations just lacked
behind.
TOTAL PATENT APPLICATIONS
Fig 1 represents total patent applications by various nations
Fig 1 depicts total patent applications by
various nations in world.About 2.9 million
patent applications were filed worldwide in
2015, up 7.8% from 2014. Driving that
strong growth were filings in China, which
received about 174,000 of the nearly
208,000 additional filings in 2015.
CHINA
38%
US
JAPAN 20%
12%
KOREA
7%
EPO
6%
OTHERS
17%
