Residents of India have demonstrated a significant surge in patent applications, marking an impressive 11-year period of continuous growth that stands unparalleled globally among the top 10 filing countries. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi lauded this achievement, highlighting the substantial rise in patent applications as a strong indicator of the escalating innovative spirit among the country’s youth and a promising sign for the future.
The World Intellectual Property Indicators (WIPI) report by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) revealed a remarkable 31.6 percent increase in patent applications from Indian residents in 2022. PM Modi, acknowledging this growth, expressed the positive implications of this trend in a post on X. The report also highlighted a notable shift: for the first time, the number of patents filed by Indian residents surpassed those filed by foreigners. This trend signified India’s rapidly expanding innovation ecosystem.
Specifically, patent filings by residents in India, submitted to the Indian Patent Office, surged by 47 percent, reaching 38,551 in 2022, constituting half of the total 77,068 filings with the Indian Patent Office. The WIPI report underscored that global patenting activity hit a new record high, boosted by Indian and Chinese innovators and driven by heightened levels of innovation, entrepreneurship, and digitalization in these countries.
Globally, in 2022, innovators worldwide submitted a total of 3.5 million patent applications. The countries with the highest numbers of patent filings were China, the US, Japan, Republic of Korea, and Germany. The WIPI report emphasized the dominance of Asia in intellectual property filing activity, indicating that a significant majority of patent, trademark, and industrial design filings originated from the region.
Furthermore, the report highlighted substantial filing increases in Switzerland, China, Austria, and the UK, signifying robust growth in intellectual property activities in these nations.
