The Hindu Business Line : India rated high in IP protection

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Hyderabad March 4 In intellectual property (IP) protection, India is rated higher than China and the Czech Republic, but comes behind the US, the UK, Canada and Taiwan, according to Ernst & Young and Indian Semiconductor Association report on the semiconductor sector competitiveness.

In its benchmarking study, E&Y and ISA found that barring the Czech Republic, India has the least number of US patent applications and grants to its credit. This is because design companies in India, being captive arms of multinational companies and third party service providers, handle some portions of projects rather than execute the entire IP or product development projects on turnkey basis.

However, the report found that there could be several small Indian companies creating IP but not filing for a US patent owing to the substantial cost involvement.

The report quoting data between 2001-2005 states that the US had filed for 5,96,447 applications for patents and of this 2,34,725 have been granted; the UK follows suit with 15,942 filings and 4,501 grants respectively, Canada has 12,529 applications and 3,559 grants and India is way below China and Taiwan with 2,145 applications and 621 being granted patents.

These patents cover semiconductor devices, basic electronics, printed circuits, electrical communication and information storage.

The US tops with some 724 semiconductor design companies, followed by Taiwan with 268 and the UK with about 200 companies. It is significant to note that India has close to 150 semiconductor companies; a majority of the leading multinational companies now have design centres in India.

The benchmark study cites the Global Competitiveness report for 2006-2007 that ranks India after the UK, Canada and the US, Israel and Taiwan in terms of legal and intellectual property regime factoring some 125 countries, where India had ranked fourth.

The ISA-E&Y study released in Hyderabad last month suggested that the Government, academia and the semiconductor industry should forge a strong partnership to promote and fund research, IP creation and patenting. It favoured easier availability of venture capital financing for start-ups and early stage companies, which would serve as a growth catalyst. Unlike the IT sector, the semiconductor industry requires more funds and it is estimated that for a company to take its innovation to market, the requirement could go up from $20-40 million.