Commercial Working of Patents in India

The number of patents granted in a country is an indicator of the technological strength of the country. However, it should be noted that actual growth depend upon the working of patents. Working of a patent means the commercial exploitation of the invention that is embodied in the patent. Thus, till the time a patented invention is commercially worked, the patent does not contribute to the economy of a country.

A study has been done to analyze the data related to working of patents in India. However, this requires a study of the patents granted in India as well as the patents in force, over a period of time. For studying the trend of grant of patents, the data of ten previous financial years (1988-89 to 1997-98) have been considered. Table 1 gives the number of patents granted to Indians/Indian companies and foreigners/foreign companies during the period.

	1988-89	1989-90	1990-91	1991-92	1992-93	1993-94	1994-95	1995-96	1996-97	1997-98
Indians	795	519	379	551	251	442	476	415	293	619
Foreigners resident abroad	2585	1371	1112	1125	1021	1304	1283	1118	614	1225
Total	3380	1890	1491	1676	1272	1746	1759	1533	907	1844

It may be noted that the average percentage share of patents granted to Indians/Indian Companies of the total patents granted over the period is approximately 27%. A break-up of the data under various fields of invention during the said period is reflected in table 2.

Table 2:
The number of patents granted during the last ten years from 1988-89 to 1997-98 under various fields of inventions

Year	Chemical	Drug	Food	Electrical	Mechanical	General	Total
1988-89	704	300	44	608	1183	541	3380
1989-90	389	146	20	322	692	321	1890
1990-91	339	87	10	285	535	235	1991
1991-92	474	118	10	167	181	726	1676
1992-93	318	94	12	194	372	282	1272
1993-94	436	145	30	132	161	540	1746
1994-95	642	232	49	135	161	540	1759
1995-96	470	132	34	56	159	682	1533
1996-97	282	71	18	54	192	340	907
1997-98	503	291	58	177	381	434	1844

Once a patent is granted and sealed, renewal charges have to be paid in order to keep the patent in force. Non-payment of the requisite fees for a particular patent, forfeits the patentee of his rights, resulting in the expiry of the patent. This means that any interested person would now be able to exploit the patent without compensating the patentee.

To show the trend of number of patents in force, the data for the same ten year period has been taken into account. The break-up of number of patents by Indians/Indian companies in force and those by foreigners/foreign companies is illustrated in table 3.

It may be observed that the number of patents in force in the name of Indian individuals/companies is 18% only whereas their share was 27% in the total number of granted patents. This shows that Indian patentees or their licenses show comparatively less interest in renewal of their patents than their foreign counterparts.

	1988-89	1989-90	1990-91		1991-92	1992-93	1993-94	1994-95	1995-96	1996-97	1997-98
Indians	2584	2468		2238	1206	1034	1995	1923	2098	2003	2047
Foreigners resident abroad	11015	10941		8210	9093	8997	7281	7052	6994	7202	6882
Total	13599	13409		10448	10299	10031	9276	8975	9092	9205	8929

Year	Chemical	Mechanical & General	Electrical	Total
1987	151	318	89	558
1988	155	301	118	574
1989	64	172	53	289
1990	80	134	38	252
1991	93	210	40	343
1992	63	156	52	271
1993	249	428	65	742
1994	249	418	65	732
1995	324	380	237	941
1996	196	350	51	597

Pursuant to the provisions of sub-section (2) of Section 146 of the Patents Act, 1970, every patentee and licencee, is required to furnish a periodical statement specifying the extent to which a patent has been commercially worked in India. Such statement should be furnished every calendar year within three months of the end of each year.

Based on the statements furnished by the patentees/licensees and the record held in the Patent Office, the number of patents worked during the last nine years, from 1988 to 1996 with classification under Chemical, Mechanical & General and Electrical is reflected in table 4.