Samsung unit in India tops charts for filing IT patents

Samsung R&D Institute India filed the maximum number of patent applications in the IT sector in 2015-16, followed by home-grown TCS and Wipro. According to the annual report of Office of the Controller General of patents, designs, trademarks and geographical indications, the other top applicants include premier Indian Institute of Technologies (IITs) and HCL Technologies. In common parlance, this office is called Indian Patent Office, which comes under the Commerce and Industry Ministry. Samsung R&D Institute India, TCS, Wipro, IITs and HCL have filed 229, 213, 149, 60 and 49 applications, respectively. In the scientific and research and development organisations category, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has topped the chart. Further, among foreign applicants, US-based chip maker Qualcomm has filed the maximum number of 1,884 patent applications, followed by Koninklijke Philips (949), Samsung Electronics (905), Huawei Technologies (648) and General Electric Company (446). IP includes patents, design, trademark and geographical indications. With the Indian Patent Office strengthening the culture of transparency, accountability and efficiency in its management, filing of intellectual property (IP) applications increased by about 30 per cent to 3,41,086 in 2015-16 as against 2,62,638 in the previous fiscal. As per the report, filing of patents, design and trademark applications recorded a double-digit growth in percentage terms in 2015-16. These figures reflect significance as IP protection encourages innovation, development of knowledge-based industries and creates favourable environment for technology transfer.