TS stands 6th in patent filings

Hyderabad: Telangana secured 6th position in patents filing in 2022-23, while Tamil Nadu got first, Maharashtra second, and Uttar Pradesh stood at third position in the patent filings. The Annual Report of Patents, Trademarks, and Designs by the Indian Patents Office for 2022-23 said that there is an overall increase of 5.94 per cent in the patents filed under the Intellectual Properties regime in the country.

Interestingly, the report reveals that IP innovators, educational institutions, companies, start-ups and SMEs were leading the IP filings, with total filings stood at 82,811 in 2022-23 from the 60,1789 filed in the previous year. It is an increase of 24.6 per cent more from the last year. Subhajit Saha, Head of IPR & Legal, Resolute Group, said, “The trends are interesting to see how the research and patent-driven innovations are catching up with private universities and scientific Institutions.” However, neither a single educational university nor Institution from Telangana has figured in the top 10 rankings. This shows we have a long way to go, he added.

Telangana stood in 13th position in design filings with 394 applications, as against rank 1 Maharashtra with 3,683 designs filed.

Similarly, Telangana stood 9th in trademarks (TMs) filings for 2022-23, with 17,817 TMs filed against rank 1 Maharashtra at 85,539 TMs.

“There is a huge scope to cross 50,000 TMs by next year for Telangana with new business and services coming into Telangana,” he added.

The overall IP filing scenario in the country indicates that the percentage of Indian applicant filings has gone up to 52.59 per cent for this year and it is a very encouraging trend.

The major share of patent filings has been by educational institutions, followed by Individual innovators, then companies and foreign entities. The number of patents filed by startups stood in 2016 and by SMEs at 1329. The total number of trademarks filed stood at 46,6580, designs at 22,698, copyrights at 29,466 GIs at 211 and the numbers of semiconductor IC layouts by far 23, the highest to date is a positive outcome for the research being done in this space.

Also, for the first time, four private universities led by Lovely Professional University topped the charts in patent filings for educational institutions. The IITs (cumulative),include the IIT Hyderabad getting rank 5 in the country. The IIT has topped with 803 patents in the scientific and research development organizations, with CSIR in 4th Position and IISc in 10th.

Major Pharma companies from Telangana, Dr Reddy’s, MSN and NATCO figured in the Top 10 ranking for PCT filing application form patent filing in International Countries. TVS Motors, CSIR and Hindustan Petroleum were the top 3 PCT filers from Indian Applicants. “With 1.19 lakhs startups registered and three crores plus MSME registered in the MSME Udyam, the patent numbers of 2016 and 1329 stands very low. However, there is huge scope for increased filings in the coming days,” Saha noted.

Another interesting factor was to see TCS Rank 3 for Patent filings in the IT sector behind Lovely Professional University and Jain University. Sabyasachi Calcutta LLP stood Number 1 in the ranking for Design by Indian Applicants with 916 Designs being filed, followed by Chitakara University, Relaxo Footwear, Havells India and Hero Moto Corp Group.

The IP story for India is on a fast track and will become more robust by the day. With 593 Patent examiners in 13 streams, the patent office is doing its best for faster grants. In the coming days, the number of payment examiners will double. India, with a vibrant SMEs and start-up ecosystem, has huge potential to cross 10 Lakh IPR filings by 2026, he said.