Get patents before profits

Part 1 of 2

India is a latecomer in the global race for Standard Essential Patents (SEPs). Given the size and potential of India, targeted strategies are required to help position the country as a competitive player in 6G, quantum computing, NLP/ AI, and robotics.

Sadly, India files fewer patents per capita compared to China, South Korea, or the U.S. Resident filings have been historically low (at least 50 percent of patents are filed by foreign entities). India now faces twin challenges of (i) low rate of patent filing in high-technology sectors with low patenting rate compared to other similarly situated countries, and (ii) the propensity of patent filing is not commensurate with rising high-quality academic output. The former is terribly low in India, while the latter is unsurprisingly among the world’s highest.

This conundrum is called “valley of death” in tech circles. It suggests that the deepest part of R&D—applied research, prototyping, and testing in early-stage development —is where support is weakest. This ‘citation-patent gap’ must be bridged.

Some novel accelerators are promoting open-source implementation of innovations using the Indian Open Source for Mobile Communication Networks (IOS-MCN) platform, gamification of IP process for training and a user-friendly dashboard for patent filing and a claim chart database. We will elaborate on this in Part 2 of the series.

The citation-patent gap
The proximate reasons for an unsatisfactory rate of patent filings are low R&D spending (mere 0.65 percent of GDP), abysmally low share of private sector (only 36 percent of total R&D spending), bureaucratic delays (long gestation period of 48-58 months from filing to grant), manpower shortages in the patent office (especially in technologies which require cutting-edge scientific rigor), and focus on incremental rather than new innovation with high commercial potential.

One reason why India is ahead of the academic publishing curve quantitatively is because of the expanding base of researchers and scientists in growing number of universities. Since COVID-19, India has produced more than 1.5 million research papers which are indexed in Scopus. Indian academia, led by IITs, IISc, BITS Pilani, and others, generates over 30 percent of high-citation papers.

Patent filings remain dismal because of gaps in perception, priorities, procedures, and profitability. High filing costs (at least Rs 2,00,000 per application) and procedural complexities make matters worse. The final push into the trench comes from underdeveloped commercialization. As a result, a culture of creating profitable innovative solutions fall on deaf ears in most, if not all, institutions.

Lack of synchronization
The incessant focus on climbing up university rankings is hard to miss in the ongoing marketing blitzkrieg. There are exceptions. Singular focus on academic publication could be in pursuit of new knowledge and to attract research funding. But there could also be systemic disciplinary biases and flawed incentive structures. Without complementary synergies with patents, excessive focus on academic publishing has crowded out patenting efforts in the past decades. The high opportunity cost of time and resources constraints make it difficult to follow a synergistic path of publications AND patents.

Weak Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs) in universities and research institutions do no good. They are resource-constrained, ill-equipped for fast-moving technologies, lack expertise to navigate the techno-legal and administrative processes of interacting with the patent office, and many suffer from overbearing internal bureaucracy.

Focusing on patents and getting it right requires clarity on claims of novelty in invention, coherence in defining the inventive step subject to a strong grasp of prior art, and a reasonably intelligible understanding of industrial applicability of the invention i.e., potential for commercialization.

Bridging through incentives
Various studies have highlighted that without sweeping reforms, this gap will persist and undermine India’s goal for technological sovereignty. To compete, contribute, and cooperate in global standard development with SEPs in hand, India needs policy shifts toward a new system. A system that rewards strong patents alongside academic citations, successful entrepreneurship alongside student evaluation, commercialized products alongside unidirectional rankings, and attendance in academic conferences alongside technical standard development forums.

Deep tech startups represent India’s best shot at SEP leadership, particularly in telecom standards. Government schemes like NIDHI-PRAYAS provide seed funding, while the Scheme for Promotion of 5G in India fast-tracks filings for essential contributions to 3GPP working groups. Startups can target high-value areas like 5G/6G protocols, where early participation yields royalties from global device makers.

Urgent reforms
First, subsidize patent filings by any inventor who is an ‘academician’ – professor at any level, scientist, research fellow, doctoral and post-doctoral researchers – through TTOs.

Second, all TTOs, irrespective of where they are housed, undergo mandatory upskilling program.

Third, make curricula on general principles of IP, practical courses on SEPs, and courses on patent valuation and technology management mandatory in all STEM programs.

Four, infuse in-house incubators with venture grants and giving them the mandate of transforming ideas into commercial assets in a reasonable period.

Five, create licensing hubs modeled on successful globally benchmarked examples to facilitate revenue streams and incentivizing researchers to pursue SEPs for global standard development bodies.

With the above reforms, participation in standard development exercises, SEP licensing pools and (re)creating specialized IP tribunals for swift dispute resolution will help firms. Litigation risks and legal costs are deadweight loss for all. The financially weakest IP infringer faces potentially highest risk of irreversible business loss. Let’s not go down this route!

Dr. Ashish Bharadwaj has served as professor and founding Dean at Jindal Global University and BITS Pilani in Mumbai.

The article has been co-authored by Pamela Kumar, Chief Strategy Advisor, FSID, IISc Bengaluru. She has held senior roles at AT&T Bell Labs, C-DoT, Texas Instruments, IBM and Hewlett-Packard Enterprise and Director General of TSDSI and President of CCICI (Cloud Computing Innovation Council of India).