“India Leads in Pharmaceutical Patent Applications Among Large Middle-Income Countries: WIPO Report”
India’s Bullish Stance on Pharmaceutical Patent Applications
India has shown a robust increase in filing patent applications in the pharmaceutical sector among large middle-income countries during the period 2017-2019. According to the World Intellectual Property Indicators 2021 report by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), applicants residing in India filed 17.8% of total patent applications in pharmaceuticals.
Global pharmaceutical-related patents only saw a modest growth of 2.7 percent over a decade, from 73,865 published applications in 2009 to 96,737 published applications in 2019. However, almost 17.8 percent of the total published applications from applicants residing in India were into pharmaceuticals from 2017.
India and Mexico Lead in Pharmaceutical Patents
“Among large middle-income countries during the same period (2017-2019), applicants residing in India (17.8% of total published applications) and Mexico (10.5%) filed most heavily in pharmaceuticals. As data are available only up until 2019, it is too early to observe the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on pharmaceutical patenting activity,” the report stated.
Biotechnology saw a 6.3 percent growth during the decade, from 38,403 published applications in 2009 to 70,520 published applications in 2019, worldwide. Interestingly, the report notes that worldwide, the fields of technology related to the lifesciences had comparatively high shares of Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) applications with women inventors in 2020.
India’s Rank in IP Filing Activity
India has moved up two ranks to eighth in terms of the highest number of total IP filing activity, including resident and abroad filings, during the year 2020, from the 10th position it held in 2018. In 2019, the country was in the ninth rank, while China and the US continued to maintain their top two ranks respectively in 2020.
“Women represented more than one-quarter of inventors listed in published PCT applications in the field of biotechnology (29.5%), food chemistry (29.4%), pharmaceuticals (28.6%), analysis of biological materials (25.9%) and organic fine chemistry (25.2%),” the report added.
India’s Position in Terms of Patents, Trade Marks, and Designs
India has been ranked ninth in terms of patents, sixth in terms of trade marks and 13th in terms of designs, in the year 2020, considering both resident and abroad IP filing. The rank list is led by China, followed by the US, Germany, Japan, Republic of Korea, France, and the UK. In terms of resident IP activity, during 2020, India ranked seventh.
“India has around 615 patent examiners with an average experience of 4.5 years, while China has the highest numbers at 13,704 examiners followed by the US (8,132). Average pendency time for the final decision of an application in India is around 42 months, while China and US have 20 months and 20.8 months, respectively. The first office action following a patent filing in India is taken in an average period of 18 months from filing,” the report concluded.
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