A record-breaking year for IP filings in India

India’s thriving innovation ecosystem has helped the country buck the global trend of diminished IP activity and show rises in patents, trademarks, designs and GIs, says Ashwin Julka of Remfry & Sagar.

The Indian IP Office’s Annual Report 2022–23 indicates that IP filings in India are continuing to surge even though filing activity has weakened globally. Be it patents, trademarks, designs or geographical indications (GIs), filings over the past decade have nearly doubled.

Patents

From 42,951 filings in 2013–14, filings increased to 82,811 in 2022–23—an increase of 92.8% over a decade (the Annual Report statistics correspond to the financial year that began on April 1, 2022 and ended on March 31, 2023). The increase over the previous year was 24.6%. In contrast, according to World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) statistics, in 2022, global patent applications rose 1.7% over the previous year. Latest official figures indicate that a record 90,300 applications were filed in 2023 and for the first time, 100,000 patents were granted in a year (2023–24), with the patent office granting 250 patents a day.

“According to the IPO’s Annual Report 2022–23, the number of patent applications filed by startups increased by over 150% in the past five years.”

Trademarks
In the last ten years, trademark filings have risen nearly 133%. Compared to the previous year, 2022–23 saw a rise of 4%, a marked contrast to global trademark filings that fell 15.7% between 2021 and 2022.

Designs
The uptrend in design filings has been over 165% in the last decade from 8,533 filings in 2013–14 to 22,698 filings in 2022–23. Recent government data reveals that 27,819 designs were registered in 2023–24—the highest figure ever.

GIs
In 2013–14, 75 GI applications were filed—the figure increased nearly 200% to 211 applications in 2022–23. The uptick was especially sharp in 2022–23 as only 116 applications were filed in the previous year. Also, 160 GI registrations have been added to the previous tally of 475 GI registrations in the country in 2023–24.

Though the overall efficiency of the Indian IP Office is rising, Fig. 1 reveals a sharp drop in patent examination figures in 2022–23. This may be explained by a shift in focus from first examination to tackling pendency at the post examination stage. According to a 2022 PM Advisory Council Report, whereas the global best practice is disposal within two to three years, in India, the average time taken is over four years. One reason for delay is lack of manpower, especially at the controller level. While this is being addressed through recruitment and training drives, in recent months, the Patent Office has been appointing nearly treble the number of hearings it did previously to clear backlogs and overall reduce the time taken for an application to proceed to grant in India.

In terms of trademark filings, the average time taken for an application to proceed to registration (if it does not encounter serious opposition) is about a year. The Trademark Registry has also launched a hearing drive recently to clear long pending matters filed before 2010. In another initiative to enhance efficiency, the Trademark Office is working on migration of its services to a new platform.

Startup filings

India has the third-largest startup ecosystem (over 110,000 startups) in the world and, according to the Hurun Global Unicorn Index, ranked third globally in terms of the unicorns produced in 2023 (67). The Indian ecosystem offers an attractive opportunity for emerging entrepreneurs globally, with its large consumer base, high internet penetration, favourable government policies, and enormous scalability potential with a young and tech-savvy population eager for innovative solutions. All these factors align with India’s ambition of becoming a 5 trillion dollar economy in the next few years. According to the IPO’s Annual Report 2022–23, the number of patent applications filed by startups increased by over 150% in the past five years. Also, Indian applicants have exceeded foreign applicants in terms of such filings. This mirrors a more general trend—patent filings by Indian residents have increased nearly 300% over the last decade and in 2022–23, resident patent applications (43,301 applications) outnumbered foreign patent applications (39,510 applications) for the first time.

Fig 3. 5 Year Trend: Patent Filings by Startups

Ashwin Julka is managing partner at Remfry & Sagar. He can be contacted at: ashwin.julka@remfry.com