Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, one of India’s premier technological institutes, has witnessed a significant increase in its success rate for patents filed, according to its Director’s Report. The report, accessed by The Indian Express, said that in 2021-22, the institute filed 131 patents, with 96 being granted a considerable rise from six years ago when only about 27 patents out of the 116 filed were granted in 2016-17. The institute has also seen growth in overall Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) applications, including patents, trademarks, designs, and copyright, getting granted.

The report states that the institute has maintained a steady rise in the success rate of IPR applications being granted, with the number of patents granted witnessing an upward trend in recent years. The institute filed 164 patents in 2020-21, with 120 of them being granted. Even though the number of patents filed dropped to 131 in 2021-22, the institute maintained a success rate of over 73 per cent.

The report attributed the growth to targeted efforts to assess the possibility of intellectual property in the work of MTech/Dual degree students and proactive outbound prospecting for technologies protected/filed for protection by the institute. Moreover, the report highlighted a spurt in the number of IPR applications from 2020-21, attributed to the “filing of IPR applications for COVID-19 related technologies.”

In 2021-22, IIT Bombay filed 189 applications for IPR, including patent, trademark, design and copyright, with a little over 87 per cent or 165 being granted, a significant increase from the past, where the number had been less than 60 per cent. In 2019-20, 153 intellectual property rights (IPR) applications were filed, out of which approximately 56 per cent, or 86, were granted. The following year, 2020-21, saw a substantial increase in the total number of IPR applications filed, with 264 applications submitted. However, the success rate of these applications was around 55 per cent, with only 145 of them being granted.

This growth underscores the better R&D policy implemented by the institute, as reflected in the annual Director’s Report from the past three years.

“Increase in trademark registrations could be considered as an indicator of licensing possibilities of various innovative technologies at IIT Bombay,” the Director’s Report for 2021 said.

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