Non-residents filed 78.3 per cent of the total number of patent applications in India in the year 2012, as per the latest data from the Indian Patent Office. This compares favourably to 18% such filings in China, 16.3% in Japan and 50% in US. However the low level of the domestic filings, constituting only around 20-22% of the total filings, remained a serious cause of concern.
Officials opine this to be an indicator of lack of awareness amongst the domestic industry as well as individuals about benefits of intellectual property and how to enforce it for wealth creation. Experts say pharmaceutical and information technology companies in India need to be conscious of intellectual property as they would have to deal with a lot of patent related issues in the next 15-20 years. Therefore, the companies, especially those operating in the field of information & technology and pharmaceuticals need to beaware. Data also shows that patent filings in India have significantly increased over past few years. This is despite the rise in litigation and stringent patent norms implemented in the country. A total of 35,218 patent applications were filed in 2007-08 whereas 42,953 were filed in 2013-14 showing an increase of almost 20%.