By Ruma Dubey

What does the word ‘patent’ convey? Most of the times, the first thing that comes to mind is a pharma company fighting for patent or the patent war between Apple and Samsung or Microsoft.  In the Indian context? Well, at the most, it brings to mind the fight for basmati patent couple of years ago. But abroad, patent is a lucrative business in itself and companies vie with each other, acquiring patents and building an armor of viable patents for the future.

Take the case of IBM. For 21 consecutive years, IBM has owned the maximum patents in USA. As per data presented by IFI Claims Patent Services, IBM secured a staggering 6,809 patents in 2013. Samsung was at number two, owning 4,676 patents. Canon was third with 3,825 and Sony fourth with 3,098. Rounding out the top five was Microsoft with 2,660 patents. The remaining top five companies for securing patents were Panasonic (2,601), Toshiba (2,416), Hon Hai (2,279), Qualcomm (2,103) and LG Electronics (1,947).

What does owning these patents mean for the companies? Well, they are banking on innovation; they have the foresight to recognize where future profits areas could emerge, identify lucrative business opportunities for the future. When companies like these buy patents, it means they are trying to buy into a new piece of technology, device or method or process. This is a recognition for the R&D efforts made, which would these companies increase their market share and spike up growth. These electronics/computer companies are in a rush to buy up patents because they want to get ‘that idea’ before the competition can even lay hands on them. The buying of patent is a preemptive move on competition. By obtaining patent rights for technology that help meet these new criteria, a company is well placed to establish a monopoly in a new market at an early stage.

This buying of patent is actually valuation of Intellectual Property and its like a lottery, some ideas may take off like a rocket while some may fizzle like a balloon running out of air. Patents that have effective commercial worth can add millions of dollars to a company's assets.

Notice the companies owning the maximum patents? They are all technology oriented companies, where change is immediate and obsolescence is all pervasive. Does this mean that only these companies buy and apply for patents? Not really. There are others too in all sectors which need to protect their patents, especially pharma companies. But somehow in India, this just does not seem to have taken off. We have scores of business idea’s; remember the scene from 3 Idiots in Ladakh? There are so many innovations yet no one really seems to be encouraging or protecting them.

As per data put out by World Intellectual Property Organisation, 42,291 patents were filed in India in 2011. It was at seventh spot in the list of countries where the most number of patents are applied for. China leads this pack currently. In terms of patent applications by top fields of technology between 1997 to 2011, pharma led the pack, followed by organic fine chemistry. Computer technology came in low at just over 5%.

Yes, there is immense talent in India. The National Innovation Foundation (NIF) has said that there are over 1,00,000 outstanding innovations that have come from school dropouts and people from rural India. NIF has managed to get some products commercially manufactured and some exported. But millions of ideas and innovators continue to wait for assistance in terms of funds, technical and design support.

You have an idea and toil for years to get it going, spending all your savings but what is the guarantee that a patent will protect it from being copied immediately? And are such ideas given any support at all? If Steve Jobs was an Indian and he had come up with a product like Apple in India, do you think it could have become a global brand? No way!

Our desi companies are happy to export but money is not spent in developing a global identity. Why? Maybe because we simply cannot afford it or maybe our ‘Made in India’ tag continues to attract condescending attention from world consumers. But then that attitude also needs to change. Also, emerging economies like ours are becoming manufacturing hubs while the US conserves its energy and resources in building sustainable, global brands.

Thus, emerging economies continue to remain ‘factories’ which is why we are probably driven more by the need to grow economically than concentrate on developing global brands.