Why Indian-origin people are filing patents in other countries? probes Parliamentary panel.

The quantum of patents filed by individuals and enterprises in India is growing at a fast rate, yet India still is way behind the countries like USA and China in this regard, parliamentary panel has found.

The committee has requested the centre to take adequate steps to ensure that the India becomes one of the world leaders in the area of creating fresh knowledge
According to a report submitted to the parliament last week, the standing committee on commerce has taken a note of the huge gap between India and other countries like China and USA when it comes to filing for patents. The committee is led by Vijay Sai Reddy, who is a Member of Parliament and belongs to YSR Congress party.

The available data points out that, in 2018, India has granted 13,908 patents which increased to 26,361 in 2020. The growth seem to be substantial but countries like China during the same period had granted 4.3 lakhs patents in 2018 alone and this figure rocketed to over 5lakhs in 2020.

And we take the scenario in Unites States, in 2018 it granted over 3 lakh patents and in 2020 it crossed 3.5 lakhs.
These figures are way ahead as compared to India.

The Committee was informed, particularly in case of manufacturing sector, the lower rate of patent filing is due to not enough protection been provided to the patents in India. It was also further observed that these people or the people of Indian origin therefore preferred to file for patent internationally in other countries, where adequate protection is ensured for their patents via appropriate intellectual property rights (IPR) frameworks. This was brought up during the interactions with the stakeholders and the committee.

The panel’s report also pointed out that, the stakeholders have sought provision for a lower rate of corporate tax especially on products that are developed and produced in India.

The committee also pointed out that the huge number of patents filed by individuals and corporations in India are increasing by the day, but India is still way behind the countries like the China and the USA.

The Parliamentary committee therefore recommended to the departments to take further steps so that people are encouraged and also provide a robust intellectual property framework to ensure their protection and commercialisation.

The panel further suggested that there should be a study conducted to know how the government can push the technology products based on Indian patents and how the corporate tax on these products or services can be further lowered and the feasibilities in this regard.

The parliamentary panel additionally sought that diligent efforts be made to reduce the time taken for patent review especially within the fields of communication, IT, textiles, food, biotechnology, biomedical and many others.