Research & Innovation In India: Between Expansion & Integrity
A robodog made by the Chinese firm Unitree. A claim related to the origins of the robot recently sparked a furore at the India AI Summit (Image: Nuță Lucian/CC BY-SA 2.0)
India’s patent filings have almost doubled in four years, rising from 58,503 in 2020–21 to 110,375 in 2024–25 — an annualised increase of 17.2 percent. Much of this growth is concentrated in a small group of institutions. Between 2020-23, Lovely Professional University filed 7,096 patent applications. Galgotias University, lately in the news for displaying a Made-in China AI robot dog at the India AI Summit, filed 1,752 applications in 2020-22. They outpaced the combined filings of all the Indian Institutes of Technology, which submitted 2,333 applications in 2020-25.
The surge in filings has not been matched by grants. In 2024–25, only 33,504 patents were granted, about one-third of new applications. The year before, 103,057 patents were granted, largely because the patent office cleared older backlogs. Once that catch-up phase ended, grants fell back even as filings continued to rise.
At the same time, the number of applications examined dropped from 18,438 in 2023–24 to 15,726 in 2024–25. Rising demand alongside slower examination suggests strain within the system.
Who receives the grants matters as much as how many are issued. Of the 33,504 patents granted in 2024–25, only 10,682 went to Indian applicants. Foreign filers secured the majority, many entering through the Patent Cooperation Treaty route.
A lower domestic share does not automatically signal weak research. It may reflect differences in drafting quality, experience or commercial focus. But when foreign firms dominate granted patents in high-technology sectors, it highlights capability gaps.
These trends sit against the backdrop of limited research spending. India invests 0.64 percent of GDP in research and development, according to the Economic Survey 2025–26. The global average according to World Bank estimates was roughly 2.67 percent of GDP in 2022, the latest year for which figures are available. Major technology economies spend far more: the United States invests about 3.59 percent, China around 2.56 percent and South Korea 5.21 percent.
India’s comparatively modest investment limits the pipeline of advanced research and increases reliance on imported intellectual property in sectors such as semiconductors, biotechnology and advanced materials. In an era of tighter supply chains and strategic competition, such dependence carries economic and strategic implications.
Growth in intellectual property extends beyond patents. Between 2020–21 and 2024–25, design filings rose by 31.8 percent, trademarks by 6.4 percent, geographical indications by 47.6 percent and copyright registrations by 15.9 percent. The pattern suggests broader awareness of intellectual property protection. Patent filings are also concentrated geographically. Tamil Nadu led in 2024–25 with 15,440 applications, followed by Karnataka with 8,371 and Maharashtra with 7,893. The distribution mirrors industrial strength and established innovation clusters.
A numbers game
Universities now account for a large share of domestic patent applications. Policy frameworks and ranking systems reward measurable research outputs, including patent counts. Private universities have responded by expanding their filings rapidly, seeking to position themselves as research-intensive institutions.
The success rate of patent applications in the case of prolific filers such as LPU and Galgotias are in the range of 0-3 percent.
Even successful patent applications do not automatically translate into commercial impact. Many university patents emerge from projects designed to meet performance metrics rather than to produce market-ready technologies.
As of April 1, 2025, 230,480 patents were in force in India. Only 1.59 percent of these had been commercialised. This excludes working of patents received through the “Statement of Working of Patented Invention on a Commercial Scale in India” which is known as Form 27. If one includes 11,056 reported via Form 27, this ratio goes up to 6.39 percent.
A patent that is not manufactured, licensed or integrated into a product contributes little to growth. The gap between registration and commercial use suggests that the system encourages filing more than deployment.
The dominance of foreign applicants among granted patents reflects structural differences. Large multinational firms often have dedicated legal teams and experience navigating patent systems across jurisdictions.
Domestic applicants, especially universities, may lack comparable expertise in drafting claims or aligning research with market demand. Stronger technology transfer offices, clearer licensing pathways and deeper industry partnerships would help bridge that gap.
A system in transition
As filing volumes grow, maintaining examination quality becomes more important. Without adequate examiner capacity and technical rigour, a rapid increase in applications can lead to weaker patents.
The rise in filings, however, still matters because it shows that more researchers and institutions are engaging with the formal innovation system. The question is whether institutions, funding structures and administrative systems are keeping pace. Examination bottlenecks, modest R&D spending and limited commercial uptake suggest that growth in numbers has moved faster than growth in capability.
Private-sector investment is central to that capability. In countries where research spending exceeds 2 percent of GDP, industry typically accounts for most of the total. In India, public funding remains insignificant and private investment varies by sector.
Closer industry–academia collaboration would help align research agendas with production needs. Structured partnerships can support prototyping, testing and faster entry into markets. Without them, patents may accumulate in academic portfolios with limited industrial spillover.
Maintaining standards within the patent office is equally important. A rising volume of applications increases the risk of overlapping or low-value claims. Expanding examiner recruitment, improving digital processing and benchmarking against global practices would strengthen credibility. A rigorous examination process protects innovators and ensures that granted patents represent genuine advances.
India’s innovation system is expanding in scale. The picture is neither purely positive nor negative. It shows a system in transition.
Whether the current surge becomes the basis for sustained technological strength depends on what follows. Higher and more consistent research investment, especially from industry, would strengthen the pipeline of inventions. Stronger commercialisation pathways would ensure that patents move beyond paper. Improved examination capacity would maintain trust in the system. Filing growth alone does not guarantee innovation-led development. The measure of progress will be how effectively those filings translate into productive technologies and economic value.
(Published under Creative Commons from 360info.org)
