India for the first time made it to the top 40 countries at the Global Innovation Index (GII), led by improvement in information and communication technologies (ICT) services exports. India has moved up the Global Innovation Index rankings from 81 in 2015–16 to 46 in 2021 (Source: WIPO).
This is pretty impressive as the GII, released by World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), reveals the most innovative economies in the world, ranking the innovation performance of 132 economies.
To better understand what has been happening in India, we have attempted to delve deeper into the data of the patents published in the last seven years (2016–2022).
Exploring the Patent filing Trend in India, in the last 7 years
How Many Patents were published & granted in India Every Year?
Also, are you wondering why there is a drop in patent filing for the last two years? It is because a patent application can take up to 18 months to get published. Certainly, it doesn’t suggest a decrease in patent filing. We are considering total records of published patent applications for our research, utilising the most recent year’s patent count for comparison.
| Year | Published Patent Application Count | Granted Patent Count |
| 2016 | 41492 | 8294 |
| 2017 | 43294 | 12282 |
| 2018 | 45026 | 13831 |
| 2019 | 50215 | 22916 |
| 2020 | 51511 | 25654 |
| 2021 | 49427 | 31063 |
| 2022 | 42487 | 31199 |
In comparison to the approx. 3 lakh published patent applications filed during the time period 2016-2022, there were around 1.5 lakh patent applications that were granted during the same time period.
For the period 2016-2022, on an average 46000 patents were filed every year. It was the highest for the year 2020. The number of patents granted during the same time period was around 30,000. It was the highest in the year 2022.
Where did the majority of India’s innovations come from?
This graph is an indicator of the main R&D locations, as most players file patents locally. It displays the geographical coverage of patent families filed in India. It also reveals which countries want their inventions protected in India.
The major contributions in patent filing, outside India, has come from the USA & Japan which accounted for roughly 25% and 8% of the total patents we considered, respectively.
Want to know the Most Innovative Companies in India for the year 2023? Click here
Key Companies
Top Patent Filers
| Assignee | Patent Count |
| Qualcomm | 17470 |
| Samsung | 9462 |
| Huawei | 8417 |
| Philips | 6440 |
| Ericsson | 5791 |
| Microsoft | 4293 |
| Bosch | 3990 |
| Honda Motor | 3938 |
| LG | 3618 |
| BASF | 3172 |
| Oppo | 2880 |
| Mitsubishi Electric | 2781 |
| CSIR | 2632 |
| General Electric | 2606 |
| DOW | 2529 |
| Suzuki Motor | 2287 |
| Nippon Steel | 2257 |
| Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd | 2228 |
| TCS | 2128 |
| JFE Steel | 2118 |
| Siemens | 2040 |
| Xiaomi | 2024 |
| Toyota | 1951 |
| TVS Motor | 1894 |
| 1692 | |
| Ethicon | 1627 |
| Nokia | 1557 |
| Apple | 1376 |
| Sony | 1355 |
| Intel | 1288 |
| 3M | 1189 |
| Unilever | 1179 |
| Tata Steel | 1177 |
| Saint Gobain | 1133 |
| Nissan Motor | 1095 |
| ABB Schweiz | 1085 |
| ZTE Corporation | 1070 |
| Signify | 1054 |
| Canon | 1050 |
| Daimler | 1050 |
| P&G | 1048 |
| Tata Motors | 1008 |
| Wipro | 982 |
| Panasonic | 957 |
| NEC Corporation | 955 |
| Toshiba | 948 |
| Honeywell | 901 |
| Daikin Industries | 900 |
| Borealis | 877 |
| ITC | 848 |
| Alibaba | 807 |
| Mahindra & Mahindra | 777 |
| Schneider Electric | 777 |
| Novartis | 776 |
| Sumitomo Chemical | 774 |
| Unicharm | 736 |
| L&T | 720 |
| Hitachi | 718 |
| Maruti Suzuki | 703 |
| UOP | 694 |
| IFP Energies | 694 |
| Vivo | 692 |
| BOE Technology | 689 |
| Toray Industries | 685 |
| Yamaha | 674 |
| Reliance Industries | 623 |
| Corning | 622 |
| Colgate | 603 |
| Chitkara Innovation Incubator Foundation | 596 |
| Sharp Corporation | 586 |
| HP | 577 |
| NTT Docomo | 570 |
| Syngenta | 569 |
| Rohm and Haas | 566 |
| Mesbro Technologies | 555 |
| Tencent | 545 |
| Johnson Matthey | 545 |
Which Foreign Companies filed most patents in India?
As can be seen from the chart, “Technology” & “Manufacturing” sectors have contributed the most to the Patent Filing in India.
Qualcomm’s offices in India focus on wireless modem and multimedia software, as well as DSP and embedded applications and digital media networking solutions.
Samsung has been working on customer-centric innovations for India. A few of their inventions include the Curd Maestro range of refrigerators, allowing customers to create curd at home. Given the fascination with all things curd in Indian households, it’s no surprise that these refrigerators were in high demand across the country.
Huawei Technologies India is the company’s largest software development centre outside of China. Big Data, Storage, Handset OS, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Cloud Service Development are among the new thrust areas for the smartphone industry in which Huawei is currently working.
Which Indian Companies filed the most patents in India?
CSIR filed about 229 Indian patents and 202 foreign patents during 2021-22. It has a patent portfolio of 1,132 unique patents in force.
Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited has a total of 2406 patents globally, out of which 1326 have been granted.
TCS’ intellectual property portfolio covers a diverse range of products and platforms that satisfy the business and technical demands of companies in a variety of industries. The TCS BaNCSTM suite for financial institutions, the TCS ADD platform for the life sciences industry, and a number of additional inventions are among them.
Key Indian Inventors
Click here to get a list of the Top 50 Indian Inventors
Which Indian Universities have filed the most patents in India?
Among the leading Universities and Institutions in India, LPU submitted the most patents. It is concentrating its research efforts on a number of trending areas, including initiatives in the fields of pharmaceutical, medical, computer, Internet of Things, and environmental technology (to name a few).
Insights by Harsha Sharma