Sitting on a pool of close to 900 patents, the Indian Institutes of Technology are, for the first time, planning to monetise these intellectual properties by exploring tie-ups with firms that invest in "inventions".
IIT Bombay, for instance, recently joined hands with Intellectual Ventures (which has drawn criticism for being a "patent troll" - those who acquire patents not to develop products but to pressure companies to pay licensing fees) to seek support in marketing and licensing patents the institute holds. IIT Delhi too has signed up with the venture fund and others like IIT Kharagpur, IIT Kanpur and IIT Guwahati are considering such offers.
Other than the US-based Intellectual Ventures, Imperial Innovation - an arm of UK's Imperial College - has approached a few IITs for the same purpose.
"Most of our faculty does research and there's no inclination towards inventions. With this tie-up there's a clear incentive to invent," said Devang Khakkar, director, IIT Bombay. IIT Delhi Director Surendra Prasad agrees: "Securing the intellectual property has never been a major ambition for a faculty member. Since this tie-up, we have a regular series of patent filing which is picking up now. Besides, arrangements like these would help us protect the IP to an extent." On an average, IIT Delhi files 20-25 patents annually.
Most of the IITs agree that while faculty members are interested in research, few actually take this as an opportunity for innovation. They are discovering that tying with companies like Intellectual Ventures helps because it provides them the wherewithal to market and monetise their patents.
Moreover, IITs say these companies not only facilitate the institute in filing for patents, but also to invent in the knowledge gap areas, called open invention.
Filing a patent in India, for instance, costs between Rs 4,000 and Rs 5,000, compared to around $25,000 to $30,000 (Rs 12 lakh to Rs 14 lakh) in the US. Indian universities still lack the capability to raise funds for innovation. A majority of large universities globally have a Technology Licensing Officer who works towards raising commercial investment in the development of innovation.
Industry observers agree that patent disclosures have increased dramatically since the IITs started tying up with these companies. "In a year's time, patent disclosures have more than doubled. And in the next few years, it would go three-four times higher," said a senior executive from one of the invested companies. Agrees IIT-B, which has seen the number of patent disclosures double.
The number of patents filed for 2007-08 is still not available. The Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs & Trade Marks said the number of patents filed in 2006-07 was 28,940 - a 19 per cent increase over 24,505 filed in 2005-06. The number of applications for patents originating from India was 5,314 - approximately 18 per cent of the total number of applications.
India, though, is a laggard when compared to China which is the third-most prolific patent-filing country in the world after the United States and Japan. The State Intellectual Property Office of China received more than 694,000 patent applications in 2007, says an Evalueserve report.
The Indian Patent Office, on the other hand, received just 35,000, 20-year patent applications in 2007-08. "Patent filing has been growing in both China and India at about 20 per cent a year, compared with a 7 per cent growth rate for the US. However, SIPO received approximately the same number of 20-year applications in 1997 as the IPO did in 2007-08. This implies that India is approximately 10 years behind China," the report added.
If patent filings in China continue to grow at the present rate, SIPO will overtake the US Patents Office by 2012 in innovation patents.
There are several reasons for the rapid proliferation of patenting in China, especially after that country joined the World Trade Organisation in 2001. In China, patents are issued faster than in India: the average time taken from filing to grant in 2007 was 26 months for invention patents, 6.8 months for utility model patents and 6.6 months for design patents. In India it takes three to five years for a patent to be granted.
The Chinese government also gives grants to research institutes and universities filing a large number of patent applications. The patent office also has many initiatives to create intellectual property awareness among Chinese companies.
