Intellectual property rights are a bundle of exclusive rights over creations of the mind, both artistic and commercial, and involve concepts such as copyrights, patents, and trademarks. Each of these concepts is distinct in its usage but shares a common purpose of protecting the invention as well as the inventor. While copyright laws protect creative work, a trademark is a distinctive sign used to prevent confusion among products in the marketplace. A patent may be granted for a non-obvious invention, and gives the patent holder exclusive rights over the invention for a specific period of time. The reference to the term IP in DQ Top 20 will be from the patent perspective.

Global IP Scenario
The number of IPs filed by a country is an indicator of the concerted efforts made by the country to constantly innovate and prove its technological dominance. However, trends in patent are a reflection of the transition currently occurring in worldwide industrial activity. The slowdown in the US and the worldwide issue of inflation seems to have created a shift in rankings, with the US losing out to Japan as the global innovation hub and an undisputed leader in the number of patents filed.

The Indian IP scenario has undergone huge transformation over the last three decades but still has a lot of catching up to do compared to its Asian counterparts. According to WIPO, Indian companies and individuals filed for 6,610 patents in 2005 and were granted only 750, compared to 1,090 grants to non-resident applicants. The Indian Patent Office was ranked eleventh globally and filed a total number 28,882 patents of in 2006-2007. In comparison, during 2007-08, the Indian government received 35,067 applications and granted 15,262 patents.

India also significantly increased its patent filings abroad and is way ahead of the US or European patent office with 62% of its patents being multiple or international ones. It also races far ahead of China, US and Europe with 80% non-resident patent filings. A recent study of the latest intellectual property rights (IPR) data has found that even two PSUs figure in the top 10 companies that filed maximum number of patents during 2006-07 and 2007-08 in India. In fact, the number of patent applications in FY 08 was 21% more than FY

Indian IPR Regime
Corporate India is in an innovation mode. Unfortunately, there is not enough product and technology innovation-taking place in India. Except in pockets, the IT industry has focused mainly on process innovation. IT services companies have always taken the lead in innovation. Software patents have been on the rise with revenues from software licensing and royalty having moved up. However, the major deterrent is the Indian Patents Law, which does not allow software to be patented. However, if software is combined with hardware or has any technical effect, then it is patentable. This position may change slightly (though not drastically) with the new patent regime still on the anvil. The recent amendment of the IT Act 2000 has also strengthened Indias strict stand against IPR thefts and offences in the international market and has resulted in the increase in non-residential patents filings.

Services to Software
Though the IPR regime in the country is far weaker than desired, its evolving, and awareness among Indian enterprises is increasing. Realizing the importance of patenting, companies are now creating a culture of innovation. For example, product companies like Ramco, TCS, Infosys, i-flex, Sasken, and Subex are nurturing and building strong IP cultures. The number of software patents has also been steadily increasing compared to hardware patents.

TCS, for instance, filed for twenty-six patents and was granted seventeen, taking the total to thirty-five. Concentrating a lot of its IPR activity in the bioinformatics space, TCS is in the process of filing 100 more patents. As of March 2008, Infosys filed for seventy-eight patents in the areas of Web services, pervasive computing, RFID, etc and was granted two. However, these numbers fail to impress in front of global giants such as IBM, which once again topped the patents list with 3,125 patents in 2007, according to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

Last year, small product companies like Subex, i-flex, and Sasken were among the most active patent filers. Sasken filed for forty-one patents and was granted five, which took its total to twenty. While i-flex filed for eight patents it was granted none, Subex had an impressive year with eight of the total ten patents filed during the year being granted.

Global Behemoths Lead
The big IT giants continue to dominate the IP space in India, with 80% of non-resident patents, according to the Indian Patent Office. This comes as no surprise, as India is one of the key development centers for big companies such as Microsoft, IBM, Adobe, Symantec, Google, etc.

For Microsoft, in India, Microsoft India Development Center, which develops innovative Microsoft products and technologies that form part of patents filed by Microsoft in the US drive IP creation. In 2007-08, MSIDC contributed to forty patents and has contributed to almost 180 patents over the past three years. HP filed a total of 242 patents and was granted fifty in India. EMC also filed around thirty-one patents though its India CoE, Texas Instruments filed over seventy patents, while Aricent filed around six. Traditionally very discreet about its technology innovations, Google also filed over seventy-two patents, mainly in the areas of structured ad search and social networking, according to the Indian Patent Office.

True Leaders
During Nasscom 2008, Thiru A Raja, Minister for Communication and IT impressed about the need for emphasis on R&D and product IPR out of India. Keeping this as the core focus, the Department of Information Technology has taken major initiatives. DIT has been actively promoting ICT-IPR through creating awareness, providing facilitation services and conducting IPR clinics, seminars, etc, to enable innovators to benefit from their inventions. Last year, four IPR clinics were conducted and about ten lectures were delivered. Six ICT patent applications were filed taking the total number of patents filed by DIT so far to eighty-six. Seventeen software copyrights have been filed during the year, the total being 177.

Though India Inc has come forward to file more patents, the number of patents filed by prominent education and research organizations far exceed that of corporate India. While CSIR has topped the overall list with 1,741 patents filed during 2007-08, IITs stood second with ninety, followed by ICAR at twenty-seven. This is clearly indicative of the fact that Indias premier educational institutions are finally breaking out of the typical need for academic brilliance mindset to encourage budding inventors. A lot of credit can be given to the strengthening industry-academia partnership, which is giving rise to more research funds and world-class infrastructure. Though, it will take a while for Indian educational organizations to match the research standards practiced at MIT or Harvard, it serves as the perfect benchmark to improve.

Priya Kekre
priyak@cybermedia.co.in

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