The Indian Institute Technology, Bombay, recorded an almost two-fold increase in the number of patents granted to it for its innovations in the academic year 2019-20 as compared to the previour year.
According to the data released during the 58th annual convocation ceremony of the institute, the premiere technology institute, which has been identified as an Institute of Eminence by the Centre, received 86 intellectual property rights (IPR), including patents and trademarks in the year 2019-20. This translates into a success rate of 56% as the institute had applied for 153 IPRs.
In comparison, it had applied for 133 IPRs in 2018-19, of which only 48 were granted _ a 36% success rate. Of the 97 Indian patent applications filed in 2018-19, only 20 were granted. However, in 2019-20, the institute received 42 Indian patents against an application of 97.
In 2019-20, applications were filed in the fields of battery storage system, biochemistry for therapeutic treatment, biomedical devices and blockchain technologies, among others. Professor Milind Atrey, dean, research and development, attributed the increase in number of applications to the innovations by the IDC School of Design and the start-ups incubated at the institute. “With startups, there is a lot of technology disruption and innovators want to patent their work,” he said.
The institute was witnessing higher success is converting its application as the patent filing process is more streamlined now, said Atrey. “With streamlining of the patent filing process by the Indian Patent Office, the applications are now processes faster,” he said. While earlier innovators had to wait for five to seven years to get a patent, now the process takes around three years.
For all Indian patents, the institute bears the expenses for the application process. “Thereafter, if an innovator wants to apply for a patent abroad, we take a call on the financial aspect of the application process taking into account the commercial aspect of the technology,” he said.
