India logs five-fold increase in patents granted in seven years
09 May 2022
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The number of patents granted in India has grown five fold in the seven years since the government reviewed the Intellectual Property policy in 2016, secretary, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Anurag Jain has said.
He said the number of Trademarks registered has also increased four-fold during the period. He was addressing the inaugural session of a day-long conference on "Leveraging India's Demographic Dividend through IP" in New Delhi on Tuesday.
The conference was organised jointly by the DPIIT and FICCI on the occasion of the World IP Day.
Jain said the government has taken a series of measures, including reducing the number of forms for trademarks and patents, to further strengthen the country's IPR (Intellectual Property Rights) regime. He said there used to be 74 forms for filing an application for trademark, but now they have been reduced to just eight. Similarly, for patents, all the earlier forms were scrapped and now there is only one form.
As various government departments roll out Vision @2047 for the next 25 years during the Amritkaal, the most important driving factor will be Knowledge and Innovation, Jain pointed out.
“Only those industries which invest in Knowledge and Innovation would survive. And for Knowledge and Innovation to survive, Intellectual Property becomes a very, very important tool,” said Jain, adding, “And another important aspect to that is the Startups.”
Jain said since the Startup initiative was launched in 2016, in a span of six years we have grown to be the third largest Startup ecosystem. Last year, in the number of Unicorns created, we overtook China and we were the second highest.
“We have reached a level of 80 Startups getting registered every day in our country, which is the highest in the world,” he said.
“We need to inculcate seeds of IP in the minds of young people, he said, adding that almost 4,300 institutions participated in about 400 programmes about IP awareness taken up by the ministry.
“This has been included in the course of NCERT. Then there is a lot of engagement with the colleges,” said Jain. “We have set up about 18 IPR chairs, and about 135 IPR cells have been created in various colleges and universities,” he added.
During a panel discussion on “Making India’s Youth IP Savy,” Shruti Singh, joint secretary, DPIIT, highlighted that India has a young demography and to utilise its full potential, several revolutionary schemes have been implemented by the government in providing assistance in securing rights and interests of innovator and creators.
She said the government has always focused on innovation driven development strategy and has been encouraging youth in all fields, including technology or creative industry to build India’s firm foundation as an Innovation Hub and leverage IP to fuel the next round of value creation and growth, she said.
In another panel discussion on “IP Commercialisation – Converting ideas into Assets,” Jatinder Kaur Arora said that IP Commercialisation is a challenge because of a mismatch in priorities of states and industry leading to unmet needs of industry and then finding the solution. The discussion also noted that an IP intensive ecosystem can be further strengthened through building awareness and creative collaborations between industry and academia.
The conference also discussed the aspect of “Unlocking the Creative Economy’s Potential” as the creative sector has a strong interface with popular media and culture and provides greater scope for youth entrepreneurship. Deputy Secretary, DPIIT, Karan Thapar, mentioned that the creative intensive industries have the potential to change the way content is perceived and commercialised to enhance economic output as well as create a niche industry that adds to the GDP of the nation and exploit global markets.
During the event, the winners of the Photography contest organised by DPIIT were also announced. The photography contest was held on the theme of “Bharat ki Atulya Dharohar” to foster creativity and to invoke interest and awareness among general public and to showcase incredible treasures of our nation. The contest received entries from several photo enthusiasts from across the country.
This year's theme of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) further substantiated India's vision to inculcate the culture of innovation and creativity in its ecosystem. All these initiatives further bolster our clarion call of "Creative India, Innovative India".
