Recently, the General Administration of Patents, Designs, Trademarks and Copyrights of India (hereinafter referred to as the "General Administration") released the annual intellectual property report for 2021-2022 (hereinafter referred to as the "reporting year"). Highlights of the annual report reflect the IP body’s achievements during the period, particularly in the areas of patents and designs.
The report shows that, especially in terms of patents, the number of patent applications in India increased by approximately 13.57% in the reporting year compared with 2020-2021. In addition, in the past five years, the number of patent and design applications has also shown an upward trend. The specific data is shown in the figure below:Among the overall number of patent applications, domestic applications in India accounted for 44.41% during the reporting year, compared with 41.58% in 2020-2021. During the year, applications in almost all invention fields showed moderate to high growth, especially in computer science and electronics, communications, mechanics and electrical (the main invention fields). An analysis of the number of patent applications submitted in the main invention fields in the past five years shows that the number of patent applications is on the rise. The specific data is shown in the figure below:
It is worth mentioning that Tata Consultancy Services ranked first among domestic patent applicants in India during the reporting year. Furthermore, in order to incentivize educational institutions to contribute more effectively to the intellectual property ecosystem, the Indian government amended the Patents Regulations, 2003 on September 21, 2021 to reduce the official fees paid by educational institutions for patent applications and litigation 80%. Initiatives of this nature taken by the Government of India have resulted in educational institutions including Lavri University of Science and Technology, Chandigarh University and Sanskrit University being among the top 5 domestic patent applicants in India during the reporting year.In terms of foreign applications, most foreign applications are filed through the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) national phase route. The number of such applications increased by approximately 9.31% during the reporting year compared with the previous year.However, during the reporting year, the total number of applications claiming priority under the Paris Convention was 3,212, compared with 3,382 in the previous year. This shows that the number of applications submitted under the Paris Convention fell by 5.03% during the year. The trend in the number of applications filed under the Paris Convention over the past 10 years is shown below:The United States has become the country that files the most patent applications in India. The application status by country is shown in the figure below:Additionally, among foreign applicants during the reporting year, Qualcomm topped the list with more than 1,600 applications submitted within the stipulated deadline. Other top-ranked foreign applicants include Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., Microsoft Technology Licensing Co., Ltd., Ericsson AG, Apple Inc. and others.Among domestic applicants in India, TVS Automobile Limited, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, and Indian Institute of Technology (Collective) are the major contributors to filing PCT international applications in India during 2021-2022. The list of the top 10 Indian applicants who submitted PCT applications is as follows:In addition, the Indian Patent Office under the Directorate-General took several initiatives during the reporting year to streamline the procedural system for patent officers. These initiatives include but are not limited to:The application allocation process was modified to distribute the workload evenly among officers;Work from Home Optimization – During COVID-19 restrictions, all officers have been provided with a secure virtual private network (VPN) connection to remotely access review modules and related resources;In addition to the existing digital signature facility, the Patent Office has also introduced electronic signature facility.It is also worth highlighting that for the first time in the past 20 years, the number of patent applications filed by the country’s nationals exceeded those filed by foreigners in India, due to the progress made by the Indian government in strengthening the domestic patent ecosystem. number of patent applications. In addition to this, despite COVID-19 restrictions, the average pendency time for patent applications in all technical fields at the preliminary examination level has been reduced to 12 months from the date of filing of the request for examination.In terms of objections related to patent validity, the Indian Patent Office received around 481 pre-grant objections during the reporting year and disposed of 275. During the same period, the Bureau received more than 37 post-award objections submitted by interested parties and processed eight.The report also shows that during the reporting year, the Office received more than 66 applications for patent restoration and restored 58 patents accordingly.Regarding compulsory licenses, although the Office received 2 applications for the grant of compulsory licenses during the reporting year, no data related to the status of these applications was provided in the report.Regarding the validity status of patents (under Section 146 of the Indian Patents Act (1970)), during the reporting year, the Indian Patent Office received 55,014 "Indian Patent Validity Statements" (Form 27) regarding the validity of patents, and 9,616 patents is reported as valid. Details of relevant information received over the past 5 years are as follows:
In 2021, a new category of entities, namely “start-ups”, was included in the design ecosystem under the Industrial Designs (Amendment) Regulations 2021. If it is an Indian entity, it will be recognized by the competent authority under the "India Startup Plan"; if it is a foreign applicant, it will need to meet the turnover and establishment or registration time standards stipulated in the "India Startup Plan" and submit relevant statements. This latest category complements the existing categories of “natural persons”, “small entities” and “other entities independent of or common with natural persons and/or start-ups and/or small entities”. In addition, pursuant to the revision of the above-mentioned regulations, Article 10(1) has been replaced, and items for design registration are being registered in accordance with the Locarno Agreement on the International Classification of Industrial Designs published by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Classify the current version. During the reporting year, a total of 153 claims were made by interested parties seeking reimbursement of costs associated with filing and/or registering design applications, of which 132 claims were settled and three were dismissed.It is worth emphasizing that of the 15,262 designs registered during the reporting year, 11,936 were registered from India, while 3,326 were registered from foreign countries.Among domestic applications in India, the largest number of design applications submitted is Category 2 (clothing and personal protective equipment). On the other hand, among foreign applications, the largest number of design applications submitted is Category 14 (recording, communication or information retrieval equipment). During the reporting year, 83% of all design applications came from India. This demonstrates India’s growth in industrial design innovation. The following graphic shows the trends in design applications and registrations by place of origin:
Major design applicants in India during the reporting year include Chitkara Innovation Incubator Foundation (367 applications), Sabyasachi Kolkata Law Firm (269 applications), Michael Aram India Private Limited (267 applications), Surini University of Biotechnology and Management Sciences (203 pieces), Havell India Ltd. (173 pieces), Relaxo Shoes Ltd. (160 pieces), Sharda University (160 pieces), Masroor Kutbullah Khan Company (135 pieces), Aulyra Designs Private Limited (91 pieces) ), Harpreet Narula Company (89 cases) and Fabindia Overseas Private Limited (89 cases), etc.The United States ranks first among foreign design applicants, followed by China, Japan and Germany. In addition, major foreign applicants who submitted design applications include: Philips Electronics Co., Ltd. (218), Huadali Furniture (China) Co., Ltd. (192), Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (104), and Kohler Company (97) , Beijing Xiaomi Mobile Software Co., Ltd. (71 cases), Cai Zhengao Company (69 cases), Parry Murray Co., Ltd. (59 cases), Gillette Company (50 cases), Unilever Global Intellectual Property Co., Ltd. (44 cases), Guangdong Oppo Mobile Communications Co., Ltd. (38 items), etc.As of the end of the reporting year, the cumulative number of valid registered designs was 99,807.
