Thomson Reuters' 2009 Patent FOCUS report--INDIA!

[rcrmj]

INDIA
The most recent annual report available from the Indian Intellectual Property Office covers the fiscal year 2006/07. The report shows that during 06/07, the office received 28,940 patent applications; while 14,119 were examined and 7,539 were granted. On the face of it, the only really noteworthy thing about these figures is that the amounts have grown so rapidly over recent times. In fiscal year 2002/03, for example, there were just 11,466 applications, 9,538 examinations and 1,379 grants. Of course, since that time there has been a change in Indian law (on January 1 2005), meaning that product patents can now be protected in the country.

Given that the number of patent examiners in India has remained relatively static, it does not take much of a mathematician to work out that during the last fiscal year examiners granted an average of well over 100 of the applications they reviewed. Of course, this raises significant questions about the quality of what is coming out of the Indian IP Office. At the end of 2008, it was announced that 414 new examiner posts would be created by 2012. But with application numbers growing rapidly (there were over 35,000 during 07/08), that still may not prove enough.
Quality is not the only issue that the new head of the IP Office, PH Kurian, will have to deal with. During 2008, questions were also raised about potentially unhealthily close relationships between some private practice attorneys and some office staff. In October, the Livemint website reported on allegations that patent examiners are employed by some firms to write applications, and that some senior officials at the office have instructed examiners not to reject applications from certain attorney firms. While there is no proof that anything illegal has taken place, applicants and broader civil society in India will need reassurance that the IP Office—which will be so crucial to India’s continued development over the coming years—is operating transparently and completely ethically if confidence in the country’s patent system is to be fostered and then maintained.

As things stand, it does seem as if Indian companies are reluctant to embrace the patent system at home or abroad. According to research published in May, just 20 per cent of applications at the IP Office came from Indian entities, while very few Indian Organizations seek protection outside the country. By contrast, in China, over 60 per cent of applications come from local companies. This state of affairs is something that seems to have registered with the Indian government, which has begun to devote resources to educating Indian businesses about the benefits of intellectual property. In one concrete move, it has introduced a Bayh-Dole style bill into the country’s parliament. If passed, this will allow academic institutions to patent the results of federally-funded research. Up to now, only the government has been able to do this. The proposed legislation is controversial, however, and it is not yet clear whether it will make it to the statute books.

I previousely believed that intellectual products were protected by Indian government. From this report it stated they were not protected before 2005!