After a moderate retrenchment in 2008 and 2009, there is an increase in number of patents that have been filed by the Indian IT industry in United States Patent and Trademarks Office (USPTO), European Patent Office (EPO), and Indian Patent Office (IPO).

However, the number of patents filed is still limited and needs to accelerate, according to a report.

Mysore-based Innomantra Consulting, an intellectual property and kno­wledge manageme­nt consulting firm, brought out this report on the patent portfolio of Indian IT majors — Infosys, TCS, Wipro, Ma­hindra Satyam, and HCL — to get an insight on the importance given by major Indian IT firms to innovation.

The report states that Infosys is accelerating its IP creation activities faster wh­en compared with its peers and investing on patent filing in India and the US.

The largest Indian IT services firm TCS has invested in seeking patent protection in many other countries apart from India and the US, while HCL, Mahindra Satyam, and Wipro possess a lean patent portfolio.

Infosys has filed most of the patent applications in the last four-five years. Given the fact that it takes three to five years from the date of filing to get a patent granted, a large number of the filed applications are probably close to being granted, whi­ch will see a dramatic increase in the number of patents granted to Infosys.

It is important to note that software, per se, cannot be patented in India. Therefore, the IT firms file for patents in other parts of the world and file for patents related to IT processes in India. The other key inference of the study is that though the Indian IT majors serve their clients in mechanical engineering services or integrated engineering services, there were no patent filings in these domains.

A study by Booz Allen Hamilton, a strategy and technology consulting firm, projects that Indian engineering services could grow from the existing $1 billion to almost $50 billion annually by 2020.

Innomantra’s report also shows that none of the IT majors went for Triadic Patents, which are a series of corresponding patents filed at Europe, US and Japan, for the same invention, by the same applicant or inventor.

The report analysed databases of USPTO, EPO, IPO, and Canada Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) and did not include patent applications filed during the last 18 months as the databases only include patents in the publication phase.

Lokesh V, CEO of Innomantra Consulting, said, “For Indian IT companies to have a sustained growth in terms of intellectual wealth creation and patent portfolio, focused in-house IP development and commercialisation of these innovations are essential. This needs to be supported by an increased thrust on patents to stay ahead in the technology licensing market. Major Indian IT companies are gradually upgrading from coding factory to idea factory.”

According to him, as cost pressure increases, Indian software companies need to leverage their domain kno­wledge into a definitive advantage over their competitors by transforming into innovation centres, and sh­ould move from IT services to engineering services offering end-to-end product solutions.