India’s intellectual property (IP) market has undergone a significant transformation in recent years, evolving from a system once plagued by backlogs and inefficiencies to one characterised by rapid growth in patent filings and grants. This surge reflects India’s ambition to become a global innovation hub, supported by government reforms and incentives. However, as patent numbers soar, experts and policymakers are increasingly advocating for a paradigm shift, prioritising patent quality over sheer quantity.
This focus on quality aims to ensure that patents represent genuine innovations rather than trivial or non-novel inventions, fostering sustainable economic growth and competitiveness in sectors such as technology, pharmaceuticals, and manufacturing. High-quality patents can better incentivise research and development (R&D), attract foreign investment, and align India with international standards, while low-quality ones risk creating barriers to innovation and increasing litigation costs.
Current landscape of India’s patent system
India’s patent ecosystem has seen exponential growth in recent years. For instance, the Controller General of Patents, Designs & Trade Marks (CGPDTM) reported that in the financial year 2023–24, more than 103,000 patents were granted. Other sources note patent applications reached around 90,300 in that year. Additionally, India’s resident filings (ie, by domestic applicants) have risen to approximately 50–60 per cent, signalling increased domestic innovation capability.
Despite these achievements, challenges persist. For example, although large numbers of patents are being granted, concerns remain about the pace of examination and backlog clearances. Some reports suggest that average pendency remains high (increased by 7.3 per cent in 2023, with an average pendency of nearly 50 months for final decision) and that quality-assurance mechanisms have yet to fully keep pace with the surge in volume. In short, while India has made bold strides in filings and grants, the question of how good those patents are – ie, their novelty, non-obviousness, enforceability, and relevance – remains open.
The quantity v quality framework
The rapid increase in patents has sparked what some call a ‘patent paradox’ – where volume metrics mask underlying issues. While high filings signal progress, they often include patents that may lack novelty, non-obviousness, or real technological impact. In India, one observable driver of quantity over quality is the incentive structure: for example, educational institutions and faculty promotions prioritise patent counts under the Academic Performance Indicator (API) scores. This can lead to filings for minor modifications rather than genuine market-relevant advancements and breakthroughs.
Consequently, vague claims, weak technical disclosures, and minimal inventive steps sometimes populate portfolios, raising the risk of litigation, opposition, or frustration of cumulative innovation – especially in emerging fields like artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and advanced manufacturing. Low-quality patents can impose ‘deadweight’ costs, tying up resources, raising the costs of knowledge access, obstructing follow-on innovation, and deterring venture capital, which focuses on strong, enforceable IP.
In this context, India’s placement on priority watch-lists for enforcement and protection gaps underscores the need for the country to prioritise quality if it is to raise the value of its IP assets and align with global IP quality norms.
Reasons for shifting focus to patent quality
The case for focusing on patent quality – rather than simply chasing high application numbers – is compelling:
- Meaningful R&D incentives: high-quality patents reward meaningful innovation rather than incremental tweaks. This encourages firms and institutions to invest in truly novel research and development rather than just generating patent counts.
- Legal certainty and reduced litigation risk: stronger patents with sound applications and well-examined claims reduce the risk of invalidation or revocation, thus reducing cost burdens of patent litigation or oppositions.
- Facilitation of technology transfer and investment attraction: for foreign direct investment (FDI) and licensing deals, investors emphasise IP that is enforceable, has clear scope and defence, and fits into patent lifecycle management (maintenance, working statements, etc.).
- Avoiding innovation pipeline congestion: quantity-driven filings can clog the system, increasing examiner workload, increasing pendency, and raising costs, harming smaller entities and startups unable to absorb litigation or management burdens.
- Aligning with global standards: in sectors such as pharmaceuticals, where India’s law (for example under section 3(d) of the Patents Act 1970) demands proof of enhanced efficacy over earlier forms, weak patents can be easily challenged. Quality ensures Indian patents gain respect internationally, not just domestically.
For example, in the pharmaceuticals sector in India, section 3(d) of the Patents Act restricts patenting of new forms of known substances unless shown to demonstrably enhance efficacy. This is a mechanism intended to ensure a meaningful inventive contribution. This demonstrates how quality rules already exist in the Indian framework. Startups and firms are also scaling up; India now has over 125,000 startups and more than 110 unicorns in emerging technologies like AI and blockchain. Thus, having strong, quality patents is vital for them.
Government initiatives and reforms
India has taken several steps to promote higher patent quality and streamline processes:
- Under the National Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Policy 2016 and subsequent updates, the government has emphasised ‘creation, protection and commercialisation’ of IP.
- The patent rules have been significantly revised. The Patents (Amendment) Rules 2024 (including the 2nd Amendment Rules 2024) were notified, incorporating key changes such as the introduction of a certificate of inventorship, reducing the time limit for a request for examination (from 48 to 31 months), offering a 10 per cent discount on renewal fees if paid in advance for at least four years electronically, and reducing the frequency of filing working statements (from once a year to once every three years).
- The patent office is expanding capacity: hiring over 500 additional examiners, increasing IP facilitators under the Start-ups Intellectual Property Protection (SIPP) scheme from 465 to around 2,000, and promoting IT-enabled, advanced technologies for prior-art search and processing. This aims to improve patent examination standards (Patent Office performance) and thereby the overall Intellectual property quality.
- At the state level, policies support IP commercialisation: IP centres of excellence, single-window portals, and incentives for academia-industry collaborations. These improve patent lifecycle management and patent portfolio management for local players.
These reforms signal a systemic shift: not only speeding up grant processing but also improving the robustness of patents and aligning India’s IP system with global best practices.
Implications and future outlook
This shift toward patent quality has important implications for businesses, policymakers, and innovators:
- For businesses and innovators: firms should integrate patenting earlier into R&D, conduct stronger prior-art searches, draft claims that reflect genuine novelty and non-obviousness, and build strategic patent portfolios rather than just filing. Portfolio
review and maintenance decisions (patent maintenance) become vital: abandon weak patents rather than incur fees for little value.
- For policymakers: ensuring a skilled examiner workforce, leveraging AI for prior art and search, promoting transparency in opposition/re-examination processes (patent
re-examination), and aligning incentives away from quantity will be critical. Uniform state-level policies will help ensure that regional innovation hubs can capitalise on the reforms.
- For the Indian innovation ecosystem: over time, focusing on quality will help India move from filing high volumes to filing high-value patents. This can raise India’s ‘patents per GDP’ ratio, increase licensing revenue, attract more venture capital and foreign investment, and spur inclusive growth that benefits SMEs, rural innovators, and individual inventors.
- Global positioning: India’s rank in global filings is already in the top 10 (India ranked 6th for patent filings in 2023, with 64,480 applications and 55.2 per cent of those resident filings). But volume alone will not suffice. Quality will determine how many of those patents stand up globally, are enforceable, and attract cross-border investment/licensing.
- Challenges to address: workforce shortages (examiners, IP facilitators), ensuring examination quality keeps pace with volume, curbing speculative filings (especially from academia driven by count metrics), and preventing backlog-driven grant of weak patents remain key issues.
By shifting the focus from how many patents India grants to how good those patents are, the country stands to build a stronger, more credible IP regime: one that not only protects inventions, but truly enables innovation. With the right reforms, strategies, and execution, India can ensure its patent system supports meaningful technological progress, not just a numerical headline. By implementing targeted reforms and incentives, India can ensure its patents drive real innovation, bolstering its role in the global economy. This evolution not only addresses domestic challenges but also signals to the world that India is committed to a robust, reliable IP framework.
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