India needs to bridge gap between patent filing and commercialisation: Experts

NEW DELHI: India needs to strengthen the pathway from research and patent protection to commercialisation and value creation, as patent filings alone do not guarantee market success, global competitiveness or economic impact, experts say.


They said R&D has to be strengthened in the country as it is the input that generates new intellectual property.


"... but that IP cannot simply sit in a university drawer -- it needs to be commercialised, licensed and taken to the marketplace," Sacha Wunsch-Vincent from World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) said.

He added that India also needs stronger university-industry linkages, greater support for grassroots and student innovation, an open research system, financing that can help deep-science ventures scale, and greater depth in high-tech manufacturing.

Shivani Singh from Advanced Study Institute of Asia, said "a patent filing or registration does not, by itself, establish commercialisation, international competitiveness or economic impact".

"The next stage of India's innovation journey, therefore, has to strengthen the pathway from research and creation to protection, conversion and value," Singh said.

The experts were speaking at an OP Manthan session on October 8 here.