Emerging Technologies: Leading the next wave of IP Creation for India

PREFACE

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Technology is evolving at a rapid pace and continuous innovation is the key pillar supporting this evolution. Innovation is the key catalyst for growth and success of any business with “Innovate or Die’’ becoming the new buzzword. Globally, studies have indicated that 90% of the businesses believe that innovation is critical for their success.

Focusing on the Indian technology innovation story, in this study we explore how companies domiciled in India are creating IP assets in the US.

US is also the target as well as potential market of invented products or processes for global companies. Exports to US are almost 62% of the technology industry in India and almost 80% of US MNCs have set up presence in India. As digital technologies become mainstream, companies are reinventing business models for the on demand economy. IP Creation is an important imperative and India is increasingly focused on building products and platforms.

A new set of digital metrics is needed to understand how this shift is taking place and NASSCOM is actively working on this charter.

This report is first in our series to understand how Indian technology companies are creating IP assets in its largest market and we have used Patents as the benchmark to track the shift.

With over 4600+ patents filed In the last 4 years and increasing trends of patents in emerging tech areas, India is moving ahead on its innovation growth journey.

We hope the data and analysis will give you a good perspective on the key trends.

Debjani Ghosh 26 April 2019

President, NASSCOM

Objectives and Approach

2*Domiciled of a company is derived from the registered address of the patent assignee, as per Questel Orbit Patent Database.

In order to accomplish the understanding of the patent landscape of Indian companies in the US, the study focuses on studying patents filed by companies domiciled* in India, including their:

o Domain and application areas of patent filing

o Assignee Type

OBJECTIVES APPROACH• The study has been done for patents filed in the US, through data extracted

from Questel Orbit Patent Database as on 14 Feb’2019 with the support of Sagacious IP

o It includes all patents for the four year period 2015-2018, where the patent filed has ‘India’ as assignee country. ‘Assignee Country’ is a pre-defined parameter in Questel Orbit Patent Database, and also includes subsidiary of international companies domiciled* in India

2017 and 2018 data is provisional data, considering there is a window of approximately 18 months from the filing date to the publication date, some of the patent applications filed for 2017 and 2018 may not have been published (disclosed in the public domain) yet

Thus, for the purpose of the analysis we have combined the data for 2017 and 2018 as one year ‘2017/18p’

o The analysis is performed based on ‘Patent Family’. This implies that if a particular patent family has two members, only one reference has been taken into account for this analysis

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Key Findings

Source: NASSCOM Analysis

01

02

03

04

05

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Technology patents gain dominance: Share of tech patents in total patents filed in the US

increased to two-third (2/3rd) in 2017/18 from half (1/2) in 2015

Increased Thrust on IP Creation: Over 4,600 patents filed in the US over the period 2015 -2018 from Indian domiciled companies. 40% of the tech

patents filed have been granted

Diverse mix of organizations with Indian companies having the major share: Indian

companies and startups filed 60% of the tech patents discussed above, while international

companies represented a 25% share. Academics and researchers contributed to the balance.

Increased thrust on building IP in emerging tech

domains: Emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence,

Cyber Security, IoT and Cloud Computing accounted for over 50% of the tech patents filed in 2017/18• AI is the front runner in the emerging technology space with over

300 patents filed for the 2015-2018 period. Under AI, Machine Learning was the leading sub-domain in AI with over 70% share• Authentication, Sensors and Cloud Management were the

leading sub-domains in Cyber Security, IOT and Cloud Computing, respectively.

During 2015-2018, Indian Start-ups have filed nearly 200 patents in the US, majority of which focused on emerging technology areas with Image Processing, AI, Cyber Security, Vehicle Technology and IoT

Apart from the established application areas of healthcare, hardware and software, newer application areas including cyber security, digital payments, e-commerce and navigation, are leading the patent growth story

855

847

834

820

801

453

0 200 400 600 800 1000

2015

2016

2017/2018p

NUMBER OF PATENTS FILED BY INDIA DOMICILED COMPANIES IN THE US

Non-Tech Tech

Share of tech patents in total

patents

64.8%

51.4%

51.0%

5

The share of technology patents in total patents filed in the US have increased continuously in recent years to reach 65% in 2017/18

India domiciled companies filed over 4,600 patents in the US between 2015-2018, of which majority were from the technology (tech) domain

Source: NASSCOM Analysis

Non- Tech Patents

1. Chemistry and Chemical Compositions

2. Pharmaceuticals 3. Mechanical and Structural

Inventions

Tech Patents

1. Computer Technology,2. Communication Technology 3. Artificial Intelligence

Top Domain Areas

Indian Companies in top ten filers

Illustrative

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In tech patents, share of emerging tech areas have witnessed consistent growth crossing the 50% mark in 2017/18

Emerging tech, 46.1%

Computer & Communication

tech, 53.9%

Tech Patents for the period 2015 – 2018p(100% = 3,077*)

Note: The mapping of patents to one specific domain is not mutually exclusive, that means a single patent may be tagged in more than one technological domainOthers include Image Processing, Semiconductor Technology, Vehicle technology, Medical Devices, AR/VR, Signal Processing, Simulation/Emulation, Virtualization, Robotics, UAVs/Drones, 3D & 4D printing, Blockchain

Source: NASSCOM Analysis

0.00%

20

15

20

16

20

17

-18

pShare of Emerging tech in Technology Patents

702

88

107

193

330

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

Others

Cloud Computing

IoT

Cyber Security

Artificial Intelligence

Number of Patents filed by India domiciled companies across key emerging tech areas 2015 -2018p

Artificial Intelligence is the

fastest growing area

followed by IoT

38.3%

56.3%

44.7%

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During 2015-18 Indian Start-ups have filed nearly 200 patents in the US

Source: NASSCOM Analysis

Alive & Granted

42%

Alive & Pending

55%

Dead**3%

Tech patents – Legal Status (100% = 2,536) Tech patents – by Assignee Type (100% = 2,536)

*Others include Universities, Academic and Research Institutes, and Individuals**The analysis also includes the ‘Dead’ patents since such references may be dead due to non payment of fees or failure to respond to Examiner’s query during prosecution stage. All such patents/publication can be revived since the time period of analysis is recent.

Indian Companies International Companies Indian Start-Ups

AI Cyber Security Image Processing

Image Processing Semiconductor Technology AI

Cyber Security AI Cyber Security

IoT Image Processing Vehicle Technology

Vehicle Technology Cloud Computing IoT

Top Emerging Technology Focus Areas

Indian Companies

51.7%

Indian Start-ups

7.7%

Others*16.0%

International Companies

24.6%

• Average patent granting time in the US is 22

months (~2 years)

• Nearly, 40% of the tech patents filed during 2015-

2018 period had been granted till Feb 2019

Software Applications

14%

Healthcare and Medical Devices

8%

Electronic Devices

8%

Hardware/ Software Testing

8%

Telecom/ Optical Communication

7%

Networking7%Business

Administration5%

Cyber Security4%

Smart Devices3%

E-commerce Application

3%

Others33%

Tech Patents Filed by Application Areas 2015 –2018

(100% = 2,739)

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New applications areas including Navigation, Digital Payments, Logistics, Text/Data Mining and Cyber Security are leading the growth story

Please note that the mapping of patents to application areas is not mutually exclusive, that means a single patent may find application in one or more application areas.

Source: NASSCOM Analysis

New application areas are leading the growth story

Navigation lead the growth with a CAGR of 75.8% over 2015 -

2017/18 period, while the leading area of software applications

witnessed a continuous decline

11

8

2

6

20

26

51

54

71

13

7

13

7

33

26

63

72

76

34

16

16

13

43

35

64

90

85

Navigation

Digital Payments

Logistics

Text / Data Mining

Cyber Security

E-Commerce

Networking

Hardware/ Software Testing

Healthcare and Medical Devices

2017/18p 2016 2015

Number of patents filed

9

Tech Patent Examples – Emerging Technologies (1/3)

Source: NASSCOM Analysis

Artificial Intelligence

Company – Indiavidual Learning Pvt Ltd

Patent - Adaptive learning machine for score improvement and parts thereofIndiavidual Learning has filed patents related to method or system for providing an adaptive learning machine based user interaction. The patent provides a self-learning/adapting system that uses novel user-targeted behavioral interventions thereby allowing a user to continually improve her scoring ability by generating challenges and remedial spot recommendations based on user's previous attempts, aptitude level of user, behavioral, and test-taking skill, thus allowing the user to continuously improve her score in a limited time frame.

Company – Silveredge Technologies Pvt Ltd

Patent - Method and system for progressive penalty and reward based ad scoring for detection of adsSilveredge Technologies provides television advertisement analytics solutions, and has filed patent in the field of computer vision and machine learning for progressive penalty or reward based ad scoring for real time supervised detection of televised video ads.

Company – MuSigma Business Solutions Pvt Ltd

Patent - Guided analytics system and methodMuSigma has filed multiple patent applications in the field of data analytics. This patent application refers to the domain of analyzing the data sets to generate models using machine learning, and to provide solutions to the business problem using the generated models.

Company – Streamingo Solutions Private Ltd

Patent - Methods and systems for identifying, incorporating, streamlining viewer intent when consuming mediaStreamingo Solutions has filed a patent related to identifying viewer's intent when viewing multimedia content, and thereby facilitating productive viewing/listening of the content. The viewer intent is identified using machine learning and neural network technology.

Illustrative

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IoT

Company – Smartalyse Technologies

Patent - System and method for configuring IoT devicesSmartalyse Technologies develops information technology and home automation products, and solutions for residential and commercial market segments. It has filed patent application related to the concept of configuring IOT devices.

Source: NASSCOM Analysis

Company – Idaax Technologies Private Ltd

Patent - Internet of things lockerIdaax has filed patents related to secure, vault-grade electronic key based locking device, which is unique owing to its re-usable internet based electronic locking device that uses electronic keys to safely store valuables.

Company – Magnasoft Consulting India Private Ltd

Patent - Wearable device for a child to communicate with parents and friendsMagnasoft Consulting provides proprietary IoT (Internet of Things) platform to harness location, communication, and mobility, in a light, simple to use format. Magnasoft has filed patents in the field of wearable electronic communication devices, where the wearable communication device enables a child to communicate with parents and friends, without using mobile phones.

Company – Formcept Technologies and Solutions Private Ltd

Patent - Method to provide inferred intentional data analysis to user(s), using IoT (Internet of Things) devicesFormcept Technologies provides data analysis solutions for intelligent businesses, and has filed patent in the domain of analysis of data received from the chosen set of IoT devices based on user's intention.

Tech Patent Examples – Emerging Technologies (2/3)

Illustrative

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Tech Patent Examples – Emerging Technologies (3/3)

Robotics

Company – Hi-Tech Robotic Systemz Ltd

Patent - Warehouse management systemThe company works in the field of Robotic Systems and has filed patents related to using autonomous mobile robot in warehouse management system.

Company – Ideaforge Technology Pvt Ltd

Patent - Multi-rotor aerial vehicle with single arm failure redundancyIdeaforge Technology has filed patent in the field of multi-rotor aerial vehicle that is capable of maintaining a stable flight even if one of its arms and/or associated components fail due to any reason.

Source: NASSCOM Analysis

UAVs and Drones

Company – Wipro

Patent - Method and system for generating a safe navigation path for navigating a driverless vehicleAn active patent filer in US jurisdiction, Wipro has filed a patent application related to generating a safe navigation path for navigating a driverless vehicle.

Vehicular Technology

Illustrative

Company – Tata Consultancy Services Ltd

Patent - Systems and methods for pest forecasting using historical pesticide usage informationTata Consultancy Services has also filed patents related to pest management, where the method/system provides pest forecasting using historical pesticide usage information.

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Tech Patent Examples – New Application Areas (1/2)

E-Commerce

Company – Monk Akarshala

Patent - Microlearning marketplace in a modular learning systemThis company has filed a patent related to modular learning systems by managing a microlearning marketplace using pricing information for different learning modules.

Company – Mintoak Innovations Pvt Ltd

Patent - Method and system for securely communicating transaction information using one or combination of multiple channelsThis company has filed a patent related to a method for securely communicating transaction information using one or combination of multiple channels, such as voice message, SMS, etc.

Source: NASSCOM Analysis

Digital Payments

Company – Accord Software & Systems Pvt

Patent - Navigation Data Configuration For Optimal Time To First FixThe company has filed a patent related to the concept of generating navigation data using simplified frame structure so as to reduce the transmission time of the data frame to a navigation receiver.

Navigation

Illustrative

Agriculture

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Tech Patent Examples – New Application Areas (2/2)

Data Mining

Company – MphasiS Ltd

Patent - System and method for optimizing aggregation and analysis of data across multiple data sourcesMphasis has filed patent applications in the field of data mining and analysis for intelligent decision making. This involves optimizing aggregation of data and analyzing it to provide an intelligent decision.

Company – Mahindra Susten Pvt. Ltd (formerly known as Mahindra Epc Services Pvt Ltd.)

Patent - System which intelligently and optimally controls power utilization from hybrid energy sourcesMahindra Susten has filed patents in the field of intelligent and optimally controlled power utilization from hybrid energy sources, which maximizes the use of a renewable source of energy.

Source: NASSCOM Analysis

Energy Management

Gaming/Sports

Illustrative

Company – Cricketronics Private Ltd

Patent - Systems and methods for cricket/baseball game scoring and umpiringThe Company has filed patent for a system for automatically scoring and umpiring a cricket or baseball game without human scorers or umpires. The system collects data from smart sports equipment and automatically updates the score and performs umpiring functions. The system synchronizes smart equipment used during gameplay, obtains sensor data from the smart equipment, performs signal processing and pattern recognition on the sensor data, and performs cricketing and baseball tasks.

World IP Day 2019 – IP and Sports

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Appendix

1854

628

30

24

0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800

IN

US

WO/PCT

Others

No. of Patent Families

15

PCT the answer for global patent coverage

Geographical distribution of data-set by Priority Application

Note: IN – India; US – USA; WO/PCT - is an international agreement administered by the International Bureau (IB) of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and covers most of the major industrial countries of the worldOthers include patent applications filed in United Kingdom; European Patent Convention, Singapore, Korea, France, Japan, Malaysia and Taiwan.*Includes US, EP (European Union), DE (Germany), FR(France), GB (Great Britain), CN (China), KR (South Korea), JP (Japan)

Source: WIPO; NASSCOM Analysis

Tech patents – Country of Origin Filing Patent Application - Individual Countries or PCT?

Majority of the patents are first filed in India because a resident in India is not allowed to file an application for grant of patent outside India (including PCT) without:

• Foreign Filing Permission (FFP) or Foreign Filing License (FFL) from controller of patents in India

• Filing a patent in India, and waiting for 6 weeks

+ Saves Time and Administrative Hassles of filing at multiple individual locations

+ Secures a priority date: More time to enter the national phase 30 months compared to 12 months for individual countries

+ Lower Application Rejection Rates at national phase

+ Access to information to access potential patentability: Through PCT’s international search report and written opinions

- Higher Costs: The PCT route is cost effective only if the inventor is looking for patents in multiple countries

PCT – The Chosen Route When Patent needs to be filed in at-least three or more prominent countries*• Companies need to do a cost and benefit analysis depending on their business prospects in multiple countries related to the patent, vs the costs involved• Consequently, more suited for large global corporations compared to smaller companies and start-ups

The Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) allows an inventor to seek patent protection for an invention simultaneously in each of a large number of countries by filing an "international" patent application

• PCT Currently has 152 contracting countries

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Appendix (1/4)

Sub categories of patents under computer technology and communication technology

470

251 23784 80 61 52 43 34 18 63

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‘Others’ node in this category refers to references disclosing aspects related to Data compression, Architecture, Plug and Play devices, Li-Fi, Electronic Tag,NFC, Remote Control, Shawdow Messaging, Multicast, Testing Gateway, etc.

‘Others’ node refers to references relating to aspects of software deployment, Resource allocation, Gesture recognition, digital rights management, virtual fencing, bootstrapping, data path management, power management, virtual assistance, etc.

Source: NASSCOM Analysis

Please note that the mapping of patents to sub-domains areas is not mutually exclusive, that means a single patent may find application in one or more sub-domain areas.

96

46 4420 18 9

Sensors ProcessingEngines

IoTProtocols

Actuators Architecture Others

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17

Sub categories of patents under cyber security, artificial intelligence, IoT technology and cloud computing

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‘Others’ node refers to references related to using IoT networks for traffic control, surgical kit tracking, API of IoT, Security in IoT Communication, etc.

‘Others’ node refers to references disclosing aspects of Lawful Interception, Secure Enclave, Spoofing, Brute Force Attack, financial crimes, social engineering attack, etc.

Distribution of patents in IoT Technology

78

15 14 8 2

CloudManagement

Types of CloudServices

Cloud Security Everything as aService

Others

0

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Distribution of patents in Cloud Computing

‘Others’ node includes references broadly disclosing the concept of Cloud based services.

231

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Appendix (2/4)

Source: NASSCOM Analysis

Please note that the mapping of patents to sub-domains areas is not mutually exclusive, that means a single patent may find application in one or more sub-domain areas.

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Sub categories of patents under Vehicular Technology, AR/VR, Virtualization and Robotics

‘Others’ node refers to references disclosing monitoring vehicle parameters or driver profile, occupant safety, fleet management, antenna system, vehicle maintenance scheduler, vehicle crash analysis, vehicle profile creation, wheel alignment, monitoring driver state, etc.

‘Others’ node refers to references to references disclosing the aspects such as ‘Software’ related to Robotics, Designing Framework, etc.

23

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‘Others’ node refers to references disclosing aspects of Virtual libraries, Service Virtualization, Data Virtualization, Virtual Broadcast Domain, etc.

Distribution of patents in Robotics

68

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Circuits FabricationProcess

Distribution of patents in Semiconductor Technology

Appendix (3/4)

Source: NASSCOM Analysis

Please note that the mapping of patents to sub-domains areas is not mutually exclusive, that means a single patent may find application in one or more sub-domain areas.

19

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Biometrics Consumer Electronics Retail Sector2015 2016 2017-18p

Patents filed under Other Application Areas

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Appendix (4/4)

Source: NASSCOM Analysis

Please note that the mapping of patents to application areas is not mutually exclusive, that means a single patent may find application in one or more application areas.