Intellectual property reforms boost India’s patent granting to over 1 lakh per year

The Indian Patent Office has granted 1,03,057 patents during the fiscal year 2023-24 under various steps taken to strengthen the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) ecosystem in the country by modernizing intellectual property offices using advanced technologies and IT.

Since all documents required to obtain intellectual property rights are filed online and are fully digitized online for further processing and final consideration, applicants do not need to visit the Patent and Trademark Office to file applications and obtain a patent or trademark.

Significant reductions in patent filing fees have also helped increase the number of patent and trademark applications filed by start-ups, SMEs and educational institutions.

Currently, startups and SMEs are granted a 75 percent discount on fees for each stage of patent application processing and a 50 percent discount on trademark application fees.

With the launch of the National Intellectual Property Awareness Mission (NIPAM) in December 2021, which aims to create awareness about intellectual property rights and provide basic training in educational institutions, over 2 million people have been trained on intellectual property rights across the country so far.

The Government of India presents Intellectual Property Achievement Awards every year to recognise their achievements.

Intellectual Property Protection (SIPP), a programme to protect intellectual property rights (patents, trademarks and designs) for start-ups, was launched in 2016, providing pro bono IP experts with the government covering the fees for the IP experts. The launch of the programme has led to a significant increase in the number of IP applications submitted by start-ups.

The government has also increased the number of technical staff at the Patent Office to deal with pending applications. This has been done by promoting various officials to the posts of controllers. Moreover, junior experts and technical assistants have been hired on a contractual basis to support the decision-making of controllers. All these activities have led to the granting of over 1 lakh patents in a single year in 2023-24.

Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Jitin Prasad made this known in a written reply in the Lok Sabha on Monday.