Patent and Design statistics in India : Recap 2018

 

What happened to patent filings in India in 2018? Did they increase? Or did they decrease? How many patents were granted and how did they compare with the previous years? Which city filed the most patents in 2018 and how did the other cities fare? In this post, we bring to you a recap of the patent statistics from 2018 and a comparison of these numbers with the stats of 2017.

Publications

A total of 37554 applications were published between January 2017 and December 2017, while a total of 39123 patent applications have been published between the 1st of January 2018 and 31^st of December 2018. This indicates a marginal increase of about 4.18% in total applications published in 2018. Out of the total applications published by the Indian Patent Office in 2018, 3802 applications account for early publications while 35769 applications account for ordinary publications.

Publication type	No. of publications in 2017	No. of publications in 2018	Percentage of change
Early Publications	3080	3802	23.41% increase
Ordinary	34474	35769	3.76% increase

Grants

While a total of 11993 applications were granted between January 2017 and December 2017, a total of 13782 patents have been granted in 2018. This translates to a considerable increase of about 14.92%. Of the total patents granted in 2018 Delhi received the maximum grants followed by Chennai, Kolkata and Mumbai. The grant statistics for each of the mentioned cities are as follows:

• Delhi – 5057
• Mumbai – 1740
• Chennai – 4384
• Kolkata – 2705

City	No. of grants in 2017	No. of grants in 2018	Percentage change
Delhi	4987	5057	1.4% increase
Mumbai	1041	1740	67.15% increase
Chennai	3349	4384	30.9% increase
Kolkata	2250	2705	20.22% increase
Total	11993	13782	14.92% increase

 Applications Examined

An increase in the number of examiners at the patent office and the introduction of some measures such as ‘expedited examination’ has had a profound impact on the number of examination reports issued in 2018. While a mere 53584 applications were examined by the patent office in 2017, this number has nearly doubled to 81706 applications in 2018. This mammoth increase of about 51.72% in one single year is unprecedented in the history of the patent office.

While the Delhi patent office examined as many as 28537 applications, the Chennai patent office examined a close 27526 applications. The patent offices at Kolkata and Mumbai collectively issued a total of 25643 examination reports, of which Kolkata patent office issued 13686 examination reports and Mumbai patent office issued 11957 examination reports.

City	Applications examined in 2017	Applications examined in 2018	Percentage change
Delhi	19773	28537	44.32% increase
Mumbai	6384	11957	87.3% increase
Chennai	18017	27526	52.78% increase
Kolkata	9680	13686	41.38% increase
Total	53854	81706	51.72% increase

 Patent applications based on Applicant City

List of Cities	1st January 2018 – 31st December 2018
Delhi	1043
Mumbai	869
Bangalore	1147
Chennai	794
Hyderabad	511
Kolkata	262

Industrial Design Statistics

A total of 8174 designs were registered between 1^st January 2018 and 31^st December 2018 as opposed to 9694 registrations in 2017 indicating a decrease of about 15.68%.

While 2018 has been an eventful year in many respects, the saga of patents does not seem to have been as eventful. Although it is true that patent applications are being examined at a much faster rate now, the quality of examination appears to have certainly suffered. The patent office continues to battle a massive backlog of patent applications, however at the given rate of disposals, it should be able to reduce this backlog significantly.

Authored by Gaurav Mishra

Statistics compiled by Vibha Amarnath

Disclaimer: Please note that the data provided herein is for the periods between January and December. The data is likely to be significantly different from the data provided in the annual reports of the Indian Patent Office which take into account the financial year of March to April.