Missing in Action

A recent report of international patent filings under WIPO's Patent
Cooperation Treaty (PCT) has Indian organizations nowhere in the picture. Of
course the Indian arms of quite a few multinational companies have contributed
significantly, but where are the Indian companies?

According to available data 155,900 international patent applications were
filed in 2009 as compared to nearly 164,000 applications filed in 2008. While
overall patent filing fell by 4.5 percent there was a sharp decline among
advanced nations, and a growth in a number of East Asian countries. One expected
that Indian companies should have been a part of this growth story.

Japan, the second highest, experienced a 3.6 percent growth with 29,827
applications; South Korea ranked fourth showing 2.1 percent growth with 8,066
applications; and China became the fifth largest, posting a very solid growth of
29.7 percent with 7,946 applications. No Indian company figures in the list of
Top 100 patent filers.

While many East Asian nations grew, the traditionally advanced nations had a
greater than average decline. For instance, in 2009 patent filing went down by
11.4 percent amongst US companies; by 11.2 percent in Germany in 2009; by 11.7
percent in Canada; by 11.3 percent in Sweden; by 7.5 percent in Australia; by
3.5 percent in UK; by 1.6 percent in Switzerland; 5.8 percent in Italy, and,
very interestingly, by 17.2 percent in Israel.

Amongst the big names that saw a significant drop in patent filing in 2009
were Microsoft, Nokia, Motorola, IBM, Phillips, Honeywell, Freescale, Intel,
Lucent and Apple.

The report also mentions that The University of California filed the largest
number of applications amongst educational institutions in the world. For India,
this has been an old debate, but now it needs a more serious consideration among
policy makers and industry members, both of whom play a key role in encouraging
R&D in academic institutes.

As expected, drop and growth in patent filing varied accross the technology
spectrum. While the sharpest drop was in the area of computer and computer
applications (12,560 applications filed, down 10.6 percent), the highest growth
came in the areas of nano-technology (+10.2 percent) and semiconductors (+10
percent). The unexpected happened in pharmaceuticals (12,200 applications, down
8.0 percent) and medical technology (12,091 applications, down 5.9 percent).

The report very clearly shows that in countries that faced the maximum ire of
the latest economic slowdown, patent filing also went down. Or is it the other
way round? Countries which went a bit lax in R&D also saw slowdown?

Obviously more research and analysis needs to be done to draw co-relations,
but experts believe that this reinstates the fact that whatever be the economic
situation, it is important that investments into innovation that are
commercially valuable makes good business sense. India needs to learn this fast.

Ibrahim ahmad

ibrahima@cybermedia.co.in