India ranks among top 10 countries in patent filing

Hyderabad: The Institute of Cost Accountants of India (ICAI) and MSME & Startup Promotion Board in collaboration with World Trade Center (WTC) Shamshabad-Visakhapatnam, held a virtual session on 'IPR- Business Strategy' on Thursday. The discussion was about intellectual property rights and its ecosystem in India. The patent system in India has undergone significant development leading to a surge in patent filings. This has led India to rank among top 10 countries in patent filing.

Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) filing has increased from 18,000 in 2012 to 43,163 in 2021 and the number of patents granted has surged from 6,384 in 2012 to 7,722in 2021, the speakers revealed during the webinar. Speaking at the virtual session, Chittaranjan Chattopadhyay, Chairman, MSME and Startup Promotion Board said that the country is witnessing significant growth in terms of innovation which makes it the need of the hour to address matters related to IPR.

"India has robust legal framework for IPR. Patent system in India has undergone significant development leading to a surge in patent filing. India ranks among the top 10 countries in patent filing. The government has introduced several initiatives to clear backlog of trademark registrationand also taken several measures with regard of IPR filing," the Chairman said.

The chief guest for the event, Y Varaprasad Reddy, Chairman, WTC Shamshabad-Visakhapatnam, spoke about the importance of providing information about IPR for accountants who in turn would support enterprises in understanding the value of IPR. "As entrepreneurs we understand the importance of innovation in driving economic growth and development.

That is why we must focus on protecting intellectual property to encourage innovation and creativity. Through IPR, we can safeguard our inventions and creative work, enabling us to turn them into profitable business. In today's rapidly evolving business landscape,enterprises must adopt and innovate to stay competitive.Hence, IPR should be an integral part of every business strategy," Reddy said.

As the moderator of the session, BM Gupta,GST and Management Consultant, said that safeguarding IPR is needed to avoid losing revenues, litigation cost and capturing external market. He also informed that IPR filings have increased in the last nine years.

The speakers for the session, Isha Sharma, Founder, Trayambak and Amit Bindlish, Advisor in Health Care IP,spoke about the need of patenting and different forms of IPR under which a property can be secured.They also informed that for registered startupsand MSME'stheapplication fee for the process is Rs 4,500,a 50 per cent discounted amount.

AVSN Murthy, Chairman, CC and RC Committee later spoke about the role of CMA's (Certified Management Accountants) as the gatekeepers of IPR forsupportingsmall scale industries and startups that do not have the budget to protect their business. Vijender Sharma, president, Rakesh Bhalla, VP of ICAI and other members of the boardattended the webinar.

"Through IPR, we can safeguard our inventions and creative work, enabling us to turn them into profitable businesses. In today's rapidly evolving business landscape,enterprises must adopt and innovate to stay competitive.Hence, IPR should be an integral part of every business strategy" - Y Varaprasad Reddy, Chairman, WTC Shamshabad Visakhapatnam, at a webinar on 'IPR- Business Strategy'