China's patent lead over India provokes thought

A study by the global analytics firm Evalueserve has found that patent applications in China are seven times higher than in India, a gap that will remain for at least five more years, which is all the more ironic, given that China is, at least nominally, governed by a Communist government. Although part of the reason for the gap is the more recent adoption by India of a patent protection system, the 2005 Patent Law (Marketletters passim), clear differences in business culture and government efficiency appear to be involved. The drug and chemical industries dominate Indian intellectual property rights claims.

Perhaps the most striking difference between the two Asian giants is the proportion of local firms filing patents: about 20% in India versus 62% in China. If people in India identify, with good reason, patents with the protection of foreign firms' IPRs, this runs the danger of making them appear less legitimate. Ram Deshpande, a senior manager of Evalueserve's Shanghai, China, office, told the Wall Street Journal's Livemint.com that "Indian companies are going to lose out in the long run."

One solution offered by the report is the creation of an intermediary form of utility model patents, which would be cheaper to file with the authorities, involve less scrutiny but offer exclusivity for only 10 years. The authors argue that such a scheme already operates successfully in China, Germany and Japan.