The Indian Patent Office is battling with problems of staff shortage and implementing better examination guidelines. With Over 43k patent applications filed in 2012-13, the number of patent applications has gradually increased. However, the number of patent grants has substantially declined.
In an interview in The Financial Express, E M Sudarsana Natchiappan, Minister of State (Commerce and Industry) says “There has been a great improvement in the filing of patents. But indigenous filing of patent applications is only 22 per cent currently and needs to be increased by encouraging research and development in India. Our target is to double the number of patents filed by Indian applicants in the next few years.”
Nevertheless, data from the Indian Patent Office provides some interesting insights in to the state of Indian patents. The infographic below puts some of these data points in perspective.
