July 8, 2003
Source: The Economic Times
India turns largest patent-seeker among LDCs

K G Narendranath
New Delhi 7 July

INDIA has emerged as a leader among developed countries in commercial utilization of intellectual property rights - never mind its reputation for "weak" or "half-baked" intellectual property rights (IPR) laws.

If the information on patent filling through the Patent cooperation treaty (PCT) route of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is any indication, some could even fault some Indian outfits for overzealous use patenting facility.

The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), India's largest publicly funded R& D organization emerged as the largest seeker of patents from the developing world under the PCT framework during 2002-03- along with Samsung Electronics of the Republic of Korea.

Each filed 184 patent applications, surpassing Chinese firm BioWindow Gene Development. BioWindow had 136 patent filings to its credit in '02-03, down from 921 in the previous year.

Notable is the fact that CSlR assumed the top slot by posting a more than 100% increase in its patent filings over the previous year during whim it filed for 89 patents.

Ranbaxy Laboratories too filed 56 patents in '02-03 under the PCT as against 23 in'01-02. A clutch of others such as Dr. Reddy' Research Foundation, Orchid Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals, Biocon, sun Pharma, Avestha Gengraine Tech, Aurobindo Pharma, JB Chemicals, Lupin Lab and Sahajamand Biotech too have substantially augmented their international patenting activity to climb up in the PCT patent filings chart.

Ranbaxy has occupied the sixth clot in the WIPO chart from the previous year's 11th with 23 applications. DRF filed 19th PCT applications to achieve 12th clot in '02-03 as against 15th slot and 16 filings in the previous year. Among others, Chennai- based Orchid sought 16 patents, Bangalore-based Biocon sought 10 and Sun Pharma sought 8.

The number of US patents granted to organizations or individuals from India has also risen a pace unequalled by other developing countries. From a total of 42 US patents in 1992-93, the number of US patents received by the country has increased to 245 in '01-02 and further to 367 in '02-03.

LG Electronics of Korea and Huawei Tech of China with 125 and 84 patent filing respectively had occupied the 4th and 5th slots on the WIPO chart.

Use of the PCT route for obtaining foreign patents is expected to increase as corporates, R&D institutions and inventors increasingly integrate the PCT into their international patent filing strategy.