India’s patent filings have almost doubled in four years, rising from 58,503 in 2020-’21 to 110,375 in 2024-’25 – an annualised increase of 17.2%. Much of this growth is concentrated in a small group of institutions.

Between 2020-’23, Lovely Professional University filed 7,096 patent applications. Galgotias University, lately in the news for displaying a Made-in ChinaAI robot dog at the India AI Summit, filed 1,752 applications in 2020-’22. They outpaced the combined filings of all the Indian Institutes of Technology, which submitted 2,333 applications in 2020-’25.

The surge in filings has not been matched by grants. In 2024-’25, only 33,504 patents were granted, about one-third of new applications. The year before, 103,057 patents were granted, largely because the patent office cleared older backlogs. Once that catch-up phase ended, grants fell back even as filings continued to rise.

At the same time, the number of applications examined dropped from 18,438 in 2023-’24 to 15,726 in 2024-’25. Rising demand alongside slower examination suggests strain within the system.

Who receives the grants matters as much as how many are issued. Of the 33,504 patents granted in 2024-’25, only 10,682 went to Indian applicants. Foreign filers secured the majority, many entering through the Patent Cooperation Treaty route.

A lower domestic share does not automatically signal weak research. It may reflect differences in drafting quality, experience or commercial focus....

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