The Patent Gap: Why India’s Innovation Boom Needs More Than Just High Filing Numbers
The innovation narrative of India is beginning a critical new chapter. The volume of patent applications is increasing dramatically; the role of local entities within India’s intellectual property system is growing; and Indian innovators are exporting their inventions internationally. But there is a risk in focusing on the mere volume of patent applications as the sole criterion of innovation.
A patent application is proof that a particular invention has been patented. But it does not provide any proof that the invention will be marketed, funded, generate revenues, increase productivity, or create a globally competitive business.
This is significant because India is now reaching a level of patent activity that allows it to ask a tougher question: What next?
India’s Patent Numbers Are Genuinely Rising
It is certainly clear that India’s patenting system has grown considerably. In 2024-25, the Indian Patent Office reported 110,375 patents filed against 92,168 the previous year, showing a rise of 19.75%. Far more importantly, applications from Indian nationals grew by 32.23% to stand at 68,201. This figure represented 61.79% of all patent applications, against 55.96% last year.
This increase is not only witnessed within India but even internationally. According to WIPO data, patent applications by Indian applicants grew by 19.1% in 2024 to record 76,405 applications, marking the sixth consecutive year of double-digit growth.
These are not small numbers, but they indicate that there is more awareness regarding intellectual property rights and participation of companies and universities in innovating.
However, the numbers also make one believe in a false perception that more filings mean more innovations.
Herein lies the patent gap problem.
A Patent Is a Beginning, Not the Finish Line
Understanding the issue becomes easy once you divide it into three parts: invention, protection, and commercialisation.
The first one is invention of something novel and useful. The second is protection of that invention via intellectual property laws. The third step is the development of economically or socially valuable product from the protected invention.
In this regard, India is clearly making progress in the second part. The task is how the first and third steps keep pace along with it.
Patent stored in a lab of the university, portfolio of the startup, or database of corporate IP is not automatically converted into a commercial product. It may not get the funding for prototype development. It may lack manufacturing ability. It may be costly to commercialize. Inventor may not have any customer connection. Or the invention may be restricted within an organization without having necessary inclination and capacity to take the invention forward.
This is why patents should be considered as a part of innovation process only, not a total indicator of innovation outcome.
The Commercialisation Problem
The real challenge for India lies in what comes after the intellectual property rights are protected.
Let us take an example of an inventor who has developed some innovative medical device. Patenting is a crucial step, but there is a long way between development of an invention and its implementation in healthcare, which might require clinical trials, obtaining permissions, production partnerships, raising funds, procurement procedures and market entry.
This is true not only for medicine but for any innovations in semiconductors, artificial intelligence, advanced materials, agriculture and green energy.
Patenting is important, but it does not mean that the technology will be manufactured and the client will purchase it.
India requires building more efficient links between laboratories, patent agencies, investors, manufacturers and the market.
This is especially true about universities, which can develop many inventions, but they should have good offices for technology transfer to identify commercially successful patents and negotiate with industries and companies about licenses and spinoffs.
In this case, the growing number of patents may not lead to the growing number of inventions implemented in market conditions.
The Quality Question Matters Too
Another issue that needs to be addressed is that of patent quality.
Increased filing is not necessarily an indicator of the economic importance of each particular invention; some patents might relate to small improvements while others could relate to something revolutionary.
The difference matters greatly to a nation seeking to nurture world class tech firms.
There are positive signs on the front of international patenting by India. According to WIPO, “patent applications from India to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)” have increased very strongly, while there have been reports of increased filings at the Indian Patent Office as well.
However, the next target would be increasing the share of inventions which become valuable intellectual property internationally.
This would mean that researchers and firms must move past the stage where all that matters is getting a patent number.
From Patent Filing to Global IP
India also needs to become better at converting domestic innovation into international intellectual property.
This is already happening to some extent. Indian applicants filed 76,405 patent applications worldwide in 2024, according to WIPO, representing a 19.1% increase over the previous year.
That matters because global patenting can be a signal that companies believe their technology has value beyond the Indian market.
However, international filing is expensive and strategically complex. Startups and researchers need guidance on where protection matters, how to manage international patent portfolios and when the commercial opportunity justifies the cost.
The objective should therefore not be “more international patents” for its own sake. It should be stronger global intellectual-property portfolios connected to technologies with genuine market potential.
India’s Universities Could Become a Much Bigger Engine
Another major area of opportunity involves universities and research institutions that receive public funding.
India possesses great scientific and technical manpower resources. But there need not necessarily be any correlation between the research activity and commercialization.
There have to be greater incentives for university engagement with industry and more processes for revenue sharing with researchers. Technology transfer offices cannot remain administrative units; they should act as catalysts between research and business.
The economic gain obtained by a university patent being converted into a licensed product, startup company or industrial collaboration far outweighs the value of a database patent.
Here is the point where the policy should evolve from intellectual property accounting to intellectual property utilization.
Startups Need More Than Patent Support
Indian startups too will have to adopt a more comprehensive strategy.
Early-stage businesses tend to seek patents because intellectual property may help in building investor confidence and offer protection from competition. However, a startup cannot survive only on patents.
Customers, funding, product-market fit, talent, manufacturing or technological capabilities, and access to international markets will also be needed by it.
Consequently, government initiatives related to intellectual property must be increasingly linked with funding, incubation, prototyping, testing, and commercialization.
The goal must be a seamless transition from invention to patents to prototyping, funding, production, and exports through a pipeline process.
The Next Innovation Metric Should Be Commercial Impact
India has already demonstrated that it can increase patent activity. The next challenge is more sophisticated.
The country should increasingly ask how many patents become products, how many technologies are licensed, how much revenue patented technologies generate, how many startups emerge from university research and how many Indian inventions become globally competitive technologies.
None of these measures should replace patent filings. They should complement them.
A patent remains an essential component of an innovation ecosystem because it can provide inventors with legal protection and encourage investment in research. But it represents potential value, not guaranteed value.
The Real Opportunity for India
India’s patent boom must thus be considered an existing base rather than an achievement.
From being a time when the need for IP activity was still more prevalent to one where the number of innovation metrics is increasingly becoming clear, the next step is one where more focus must be paid to quality, commercialization, technology transfer and competitiveness.
The good news is that the base is widening already. As many as 110,000 applications were registered by the Indian Patent Office for 2024-25, while domestic applicants formed 62% of total filings. According to WIPO data too, there has been an increase of 19.1% in worldwide patent applications filed by India-based applicants in 2024.
The issue that now arises is whether India can translate this base into economic advantage.
This is because the next stage in India’s innovation journey cannot just be the filing of patents by Indians.
It must be about the transformation of industries, creating businesses, solving problems and competing with the best technologies in the world.
It is this patent gap that India needs to bridge
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