Summary of presentations and whitepapers authored by me I have created a short profile providing my key achievements in authoring whitepapers and delivering IP presentations.

You can view my profile and download PDF copies of all my presentations and whitepapers till date by visiting http://balwantonline.googlepages.com/

IPR Tools for effective growth of SMEs

On the occasion of World IP Day, FICCI and Department of Commerce and Industrial Promotion, Government of India, organized an IP seminar on April 27, 2009 for Small and Medium Scale Industries (SMEs). I participated in the seminar and presented a session on the topic - "IPR Tools for effective growth of SMEs". The Programme aimed to showcase how SMEs have created and protected their IP for sustained business growth and to provide an opportunity to the SMEs to have an insight so as to empower them with in-depth knowledge.

It was a nice experience presenting in such a good forum. The presentation can be found at FICCI's website. It is my second presentation at the FICCI forum. Last time I presented a session in October 2008 on the topic "Software patents".

I have attached the photographs from the recent event.

Patents may stall Nano's int'l sales
The Times of India- 16 February 2009

My Tata Nano whitepaper listed on SSRN's Top Ten download list


-----Original Message-----
From: management@ssrn.com [mailto:management@ssrn.com]
Sent: Mon 09-Feb-09 2:53 PM
To: bsrawat@gmail.com
Subject: Your Paper Makes SSRN Top Ten List
Dear Balwant Rawat:

Your paper entitled, "Patent or Perish: Why Your Innovation Can Be Your Competitor's Free Lunch" was recently listed on SSRN's Top Ten download list for Chicago Booth School of Business Economics Research Papers, LSICL: International Intellectual Property Protection (Topic), Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property, Competition & Tax Law Research Paper Series and Max Planck: Intellectual Property & Competition Law (Topic). To view the top ten list for the journal click on its name Chicago Booth School of Business Economics Research Papers Top Ten, LSICL: International Intellectual Property Protection (Topic) Top Ten, Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property, Competition & Tax Law Research Paper Series Top Ten and Max Planck: Intellectual Property & Competition Law (Topic) Top Ten and to view all the papers in the journals click on these links link(s) Chicago Booth School of Business Economics Research Papers All Papers, LSICL: International Intellectual Property Protection (Topic) All Papers, Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property, Competition & Tax Law Research Paper Series All Papers and Max Planck: Intellectual Property & Competition Law (Topic) All Papers.

As of 02/09/2009 your paper has been downloaded 20 times. You may view the abstract and download statistics at the URL: http://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=1331899.

Your paper may be listed in the Top Ten for other networks or journals and if so, you will receive additional notices at that time. If your paper was classified for additional SSRN journals, you may receive this announcement prior to distribution of your abstract in those additional journals.

To view the any of the Top Ten lists, click the TOP button on: http://www.ssrn.com/Browse

To view your SSRN Author Page: http://ssrn.com/author=1052624.

If you have any corrections or additions please use the email form available on your author page to send them to us.

You can use these URLs to refer readers directly to your paper and SSRN Author Page. Many authors include links to their SSRN papers and their SSRN Author Page on their own home pages, and in the signature on their emails. Here is an example of an email signature reference to your author page:

My papers are available on SSRN at: http://ssrn.com/author=1052624

To view the Top Authors Lists:
http://ssrn.com/TopAuthors

Thank you for your participation in the Social Science Research Network. We welcome any comments or suggestions and hope you will submit additional papers to the SSRN eLibrary.

Sincerely, Michael C. Jensen
Chairman
Social Science Research Network

Patent or Perish: "Why your innovation can be your competitor’s free lunch”
Author: Navtej Saluja and Balwant Rawat

Global research and analytics firm, Evalueserve, drew an interesting comparison between Tata’s much awaited Nano and the colorful Crocs footwear. The funny-looking Crocs footwear that initially elicited stares and snickers had suddenly become serious business after its launch. However, since the beginning of 2008, the share price of Crocs has fallen by 97%. One of the main reasons behind the mighty fall of Crocs is the wide availability of cheap knockoffs, which Crocs would like to eliminate from its primary markets, but it does not have the adequate patent protection to do so. In a similar vein, the unveiling of Nano, at a price of about USD 2,500 by Tata Motors in January 2008 has catapulted the image of the company, and renewed people’s interest in cheap and fuel efficient cars. Unlike the Crocs-inspired Chery S16 compact car, the Tata Nano is a smart-looking car, but is it innovative? Is this innovation sufficiently protected by patents? How can the carmaker avoid the mistakes and pitfalls that have plagued Crocs Inc.? These are some of the questions that Evalueserve has addressed in its recently released article titled, ‘Patent or Perish - Why your innovation can be your competitor’s free lunch?

Click here to get full text of the whitepaper

The full text is also available at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1331899

View Balwant's other whitepapers at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=1052624

FICCI - EPO - IPO Programme on Prosecuting And Litigating Patents In Europe And India, October 24, 2008

I recently presented a session on 'Software Patenting in India' on a workshop organized by FICCI, The European Patent Office and the Indian Patent Office. It was a nice experience to present at such a forum. The other co-presenters in the session were Mr. Richard Howson, Partner, Kilburn & Strode, and Dr. Pinaki Ghosh, IPR Head, Infosys Technologies Ltd.
In the session, the current state of software patenting in India and Europe was discussed. I also presented some recent trends related to software patenting in the Indian Patent Office. The presentation can be downloaded from this link

Coverage of my Indian IP paper in EPO and PIUG newsletter

I feel proud in telling that my whitepaper on "Patenting landscape in India" has been selected to be published in the newsletters of European Patent Office(EPO) and Patent Information Users Group (PIUG).

The EPO article will be published in Patent Information News 3/2008, which should be online by about 22 September. You can access it at the following link: http://www.epo.org/about-us/publications/patent-information/news/2008.html

The PIUG article will be published in Fall 2008 issue (http://www.piug.org/newsletter.php).

Prior to this the paper has received coverage in Managing IP, Live Mint (the Wall Street Journal), Rediff, Business Standard, IAM Magazine, TMC Net, SSRN, and Pluggd.in

From:

management@ssrn.com [management@ssrn.com]

Sent:

Sun 07-Sep-08 2:32 PM

Dear Balwant Rawat:

Your paper entitled, "IP Competitive Intelligence: What is My Competitor Really Up To?" was recently listed on SSRN's Top Ten download list for:

1. Law & Society: Private Law. To view the top ten list for the journal click on its name Law & Society: Private Law Top Ten and to view all the papers in the journals click on these links link(s) Law & Society: Private Law All Papers.
2. GSB Economics Research Papers. To view the top ten list for the journal click on its name Chicago GSB Economics Research Papers Top Ten and to view all the papers in the journals click on these links link(s) Chicago GSB Economics Research Papers All Papers.
3. Economics Research Centers Papers. To view the top ten list for the journal click on its name Economics Research Centers Papers Top Ten and to view all the papers in the journals click on these links link(s) Economics Research Centers Papers All Papers.

As of 09/07/2008 your paper has been downloaded 59 times. You may view the abstract and download statistics at the URL: http://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=1154001.

Your paper may be listed in the Top Ten for other networks or journals and if so, you will receive additional notices at that time. If your paper was classified for additional SSRN journals, you may receive this announcement prior to distribution of your abstract in those additional journals.

To view the any of the Top Ten lists, click the TOP button on: http://www.ssrn.com/Browse

To view your SSRN Author Page: http://ssrn.com/author=1052624.

If you have any corrections or additions please use the email form available on your author page to send them to us.

You can use these URLs to refer readers directly to your paper and SSRN Author Page. Many authors include links to their SSRN papers and their SSRN Author Page on their own home pages, and in the signature on their emails. Here is an example of an email signature reference to your author page:

My papers are available on SSRN at: http://ssrn.com/author=1052624

To view the Top Authors Lists:
http://ssrn.com/TopAuthors

Thank you for your participation in the Social Science Research Network. We welcome any comments or suggestions and hope you will submit additional papers to the SSRN eLibrary.

Sincerely, Michael C. Jensen
Chairman
Social Science Research Network

India far behind China in patent filings, needs 5 years to catch up

LiveMint.com The Wall Street Journal

http://www.livemint.com/2008/07/02001943/India-far-behind-China-in-pate.html
Posted: Wed, Jul 2 2008. 12:19 AM IST
China got 245,161 applications against India’s 35,000 last year; but some warn not to read too much into it

Bhuma Shrivastava

New Delhi: Patent filings in India were one-seventh of the number in China last year and have just scratched the level achieved by the neighbour as long as 10 years ago, according to a study by global analytics firm Evalueserve, which says the gap will remain for up to five years more.

The report also recommends that India introduce a new class of 10-year patents—half the normal lifetime—that will attract lesser scrutiny and encourage smaller domestic companies to seek patents, a suggestion spurned by public health advocates who don’t want the bar lowered.

Indian patent offices received more than 35,000 applications across sectors in 2007-08—up 21% from the preceding year and a more than three-fold increase during the last six years. In China, the number of patent applications last year reached 245,161.

“Indian companies lag substantially in patent-filing intensity compared with their Chinese counterparts,” Evaluserve said. Filing of invention patent applications in India was at about the same level as in China in 1997, “thereby lagging behind China by a decade”. It predicts India will need 4-5 years to catch up.

China’s manufacturing sector is largely responsible for the country’s lead over India in patent filings, said Ram Deshpande, senior manager for intellectual property in Evalueserve’s Shanghai office.

“India has seen a lot more investment in the services sector which doesn’t need patents,” Deshpande said. According to him, the question boils down to how innovative Indians are in the manufacturing sector.

The chemicals and pharmaceuticals sector constituted the biggest bulk of patent filings in India. Patenting activity in the information technology sector was 115 times lower.

China is also faster in granting patents. China’s timeline of 22.5 months for a 20-year-patent grant compares with 3-5 years in India, mainly due to the absence of pre-grant or post-grant opposition in China, which merely allows patent invalidation proceedings. China has more than 2,000 patent examiners, compared with 240 in India.

Some caution that too much shouldn’t be read into the statistics.

“The numbers are important to a certain extent but beyond that they don’t say a lot,” said Amit Sengupta, a health affairs activist and secretary of the Public Health Movement. “They don’t tell you the quality of patents filed, the way local patent laws are defined or the number of patents actually granted.”

China is a bigger economy with a larger industrial base and had a headstart in introducing the product patent regime over India, which got on board fully only in January 2005. And unlike India, China allows the patenting of new uses of an existing product.

The real concern for India is that domestic companies are not filing enough patent applications in their own country, said Deshpande.

Chinese companies make up 62% of patent applications filed in that country. In 2005-06, Indian companies accounted for just 20% of the applications in India, with foreign entities making up the remainder.

Only 22 “pure-bred” Indian organizations figured in the list of top 200 Indian filers.

“Indian companies are going to lose out in the long run. Patents that we think are inconsequential right now may come to bite us later,” warned Deshpande.

Indian companies and researchers could benefit a lot more from “cross-licensing” if they had their own bunch of patents that would act “as a protective shield” while negotiating with global companies, he said.

To encourage domestic companies and research institutes to seek patents, the Evalueserve report has recommended “utility model patents” that attract a smaller patent fee, lesser scrutiny from patent examiners and grant a monopoly right only for 10 years, as in Japan, Germany and China.

Public Health Movement’s Sengupta says it won’t work. “One first needs to prove that patents spur research and only then can we talk about 10-year patents. Evidence is not clear on the first assumption itself,” he said.

“Moroever, we run the risk of protecting innovations that don’t fulfil the basic tenets of patentability as per our law.”

Rawat, Balwant and Saluja, Navtej, "Patenting Landscape in India" (June 20, 2008). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1148671

The Hindu Business Line : India way behind China in filing patent applications
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/blnus/14251916.htm

India way behind China in filing patent applications- Policy-Economy-News-The Economic Times

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/Economy/India_way_behind_China_in_filing_patent_applications/articleshow/3164673.cms

25 Jun, 2008, 1847 hrs IST, PTI

NEW DELHI: India and China might be the competing economic giants globally, but when it comes to innovation, the land of dragon is way ahead, filing nearly seven times more patent applications compared to our country. According to global research and analytics firm Evalueserve, India filed 35,000 patent applications during the fiscal year 2007-08, whereas China had more than 2.45 lakh applications in 2007. About 35,000 patent applications were filed at the Indian Patent Office (IPO) during the 2007-08 fiscal year, which is an increase of 21 per cent compared to the previous year. Once granted, these patents have a validity of 20 years from their filing date. However, the State Intellectual Property Office of China (SIPO) received a total of 245,161 20-year patent applications in 2007. "This made China the third most prolific patent-filing country in the world after the United States and Japan. Patent filing has been growing both in India and China at about 20 per cent per year. However, the SIPO received approximately the same number of 20-year applications in 1997 as the IPO did in 2007-08. This implies that India is approximately 10 years behind China," Evalueserve said. In 2007, filings by domestic applicants in China accounted for 62.4 per cent of the 20-year patent applications with the SIPO. During the same period, the year-on-year increase in domestic 20-year patent application filing in China was at 25 per cent, whereas that of foreign filings stood at 4.5 per cent.

The Hindu Business Line : Chinese cos increase domestic patent filing

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2008/06/21/stories/2008062151261000.htm

Huawei files for 60 patents, ZTE Corporation for 52

Priyanka Vyas
Thomas K. Thomas

New Delhi, June 20 Chinese companies, often lambasted for selling low cost and copycat goods in India, are increasing the number of patents they file in the domestic market.

Telecom and wireless communication companies such as Huawei Technologies, ZTE Corporation, Inventec (a notebook original design company) and FMCG giant Haier are some of the Chinese companies that have been filing patents locally.

Huawei Technologies that filed 60 patents, according to recent records at the Indian patent office, has been granted six from 2005 onwards. In the same period, ZTE Corporation, which filed 52, received three from the patent office. The other two players, Inventec and Haier, have filed a lesser number — five and three respectively — and have both received one each till now.

“We have two ways of filing a patent in India. One way is by PCT (patent cooperation treaty) application, the other is through the Paris Convention application. Currently, we have very few patents issued in India. While globally, last year, 7,693 patent applications were filed by the company, whether any of these should be applied in India depends on the market environment,” said a spokesperson for Huawei. The company, on an average, files 45-50 patent applications annually from its India R&D centre.

Realising market potential

According to data available at the Indian patent office, the number of patents that were first filed in India from the Republic of China increased from 32 to 45 in the financial year 2006-07. Patents filed in India that had been filed previously in another country rose to 80 from 64.

The highest surge was in the category of PCT applications that stood at 184 in 2006-07, from 132 the year earlier. PCT is a patent law treaty that allows individuals or companies to file applications at an international level, which after being examined is sent to the member countries who then grant it in their jurisdiction.

“Undeniably, Chinese companies recognise the potential of the Indian market by either importing goods or manufacturing here. And the only way to tap the market is by filing patents,” admitted Mr Navtej Saluja, Vice-President, Intellectual Property Research and Legal Process Services, Evalueserve, a data tracking firm.

However, though the number of Chinese companies filing here is growing, they are yet to be ranked among the top 15 foreign players who do so. But as these companies go global, their overseas filings would increase, said Mr Saluja.

Related Stories:
Domestic cos shy away from keeping patents ‘in force’
Patent lessons from China

Patenting Trends in India Facts and Figures

A presentation delivered on the occasion of World IP Day Seminar at FICCI
Presentor: Dr. Navtej Saluja , Vice President, Evalueserve

Daiichi Sankyo gets a patent advantage
Business Standard
Joe C Mathew / New Delhi June 15, 2008, 4:49 IST

Apart from a five per cent share of the Indian pharmaceutical market, the purchase of Ranbaxy will take Daiichi Sankyo way ahead of others in the race among Indian companies for patent-protected drugs.

A recent paper on ‘Patenting Landscape in India' by Evalueserve shows that Ranbaxy alone accounts for over 23 per cent of the total medicine patent applications filed by major domestic companies in India.

The percentage could be as high as 34 if the patent applications submitted by Orchid, in which Ranbaxy has 14.5 per cent, is added.

The Evalueserve study found that Ranbaxy led the group of top 200 patent filers in the period 2005-07 with 320 applications, followed closely by Dr Reddy's with 315 applications. Orchid comes third with 149 patent applications.

By zeroing in on Ranbaxy, Daiichi has managed to get control over the two most aggressive patent filers in the Indian pharmaceutical industry.

"Though applications need not mean grant of patents, the trend is obvious. Daiichi, which does not figure among the top 200 patent applicants in the India office, will lead the race for acquiring patent protection for future medicines," a Mumbai-based patent expert said.

According to him, the data is a clear indication of how acquisitions of Indian companies can be related to intellectual property issues.

Foreign pharmaceutical companies have been way ahead of their Indian counterparts when it comes to patent applications. The Evalueserve study said that Ranbaxy was 37th in the list of top 50 patent filers during 2005-07.

Multinational companies like Pfizer, Novo Nordisk, AstraZeneca, Sanofi Aventis, Novartis, Merck and Roche have all filed more patent applications than Ranbaxy in India.

The Evalueserve study said the patent-filing trend of the top nine Indian pharmaceutical companies was interesting. The companies showed a marked difference in focus with respect to different patent jurisdictions.

Some filed for more international patents, while others chose India. The study also said that if international patent applications were also considered, Ranbaxy's numbers were more than four times those of Dr Reddy's.

New survey reveals India's patenting deficit

Intellectual Asset Management Magazine
12 June 2008
Joff Wild, IAM Magazine

Hot on the heels of its report on patenting in China, research company Evalueserve has turned its attention to India. The result is a fascinating insight into what is happening in the world’s largest democracy. It also shows that, unlike their Chinese equivalents, Indian companies have yet to get to grips with their country’s patent system – something that may not bode well for the ongoing development of the Indian economy.
The report shows that, while there has been a significant increase in filings at the Indian Patent Office, only 20 of the top 200 applicants between 2005 and 2007 were Indian companies. The top 10 local patent filers (with their position within the top 200 in brackets) are:
1. Council of Scientific Industrial Research (CSIR) – 1,523 published applications (1)
2. Ranbaxy Laboratories – 320 published applications (37)
3. Dr Reddy’s Laboratories – 315 published applications (38)
4. Indian Institutes of Technology – 237 published applications (47)
5. Bharat Heavy Electricals – 189 published applications (59)
6. Orchid Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals – 149 published applications (67)
7. Cadila Healthcare – 148 published applications (69)
8. Cipla – 138 published applications (70)
9. Steel Authority of India – 136 published applications (71)
10. Larsen & Toubro – 123 published applications (72)

But many in the top 10 have filed very few applications outside India. For example, between them, the 10 have filed 576 applications at the USPTO, but 356 of these were from the CSIR alone. At the EPO, the total was 552 applications, of which 434 came from CSIR and Ranbaxy. On the PCT front, there were 1,066 applications, almost al of them made by CSIR and the pharmaceutical companies. By contrast, the top 10 Chinese companies between January 2005 and December 2007 had a combined 20,051 published SIPO applications. That said, foreign filings were also comparably very low.
Towards the end, the report makes a couple of very telling observations:
• In 2007, there were 245,161 invention patent applications filed at the SIPO, of which domestic applicants filed more than 62.4%. In contrast, a total of 24,505 applications were filed at the IPO in 2005–06, of which domestic applicants filed 4,855 (approximately 20%) and foreign applicants filed 19,650 (approximately 80%) applications.
• Further, during this period, the year-on-year increase in domestic invention patent application filing in China was 25%, whereas that of foreign filings was only 4.5%. This is a clear indication of increasing awareness of patent application filing among domestic Chinese companies. In contrast … while the number of applications filed by foreign applicants in India has risen steeply (with an annual growth of 77%), the growth in patent application filing by domestic applicants is substantially less (approximately 20%). This low growth may be ascribed to the lack of awareness among domestic Indian companies with respect to patents and the value strong patent portfolios would provide to them.

It seems to me that if India is to fulfil her undoubted potential and truly become a 21st century powerhouse, Indian companies need to start learning a lot more about patents starting today.

To get a copy of The Patenting Landscape in India, fill in and then send this form.

News Story
Patents reveal what competitors have up their sleeves Online databases can yield clues on innovation efforts, says Evalueserve
http://www.research-live.com/news_story.aspx?pageid=30&r=y&newsid=3871

INDIA-- Research and analytics firm Evalueserve has been demonstrating the competitive intelligence that can be gleaned from the internet’s patent databases.

In an exercise designed to showcase some of the techniques behind its bespoke services, the firm looked at patents held or applied for by technology giants Microsoft, IBM, Yahoo and Google. Among its discoveries is that Google may be working on a Google Phone, and targeting the TV and videogame advertising markets.

Evalueserve says the key to finding out what competitors have up their sleeves lies in correlating information from multiple sources. The standard database of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is often the first port of call, but more digging is usually required to find out who each patent belongs to – since ownership details can be withheld, and can change over time.

The firm also trawled through the USPTO’s patent assignment database, which records ownership, as well as files held by the European Patent Office and the Patent Cooperation Treaty.

In Google’s case, less than a quarter of patents and applications could be found through the standard database, said Balwant Rawat, Evalueserve’s manager of intellectual property services. Rawat told Research: “A typical researcher might not be able to identify who is the owner. What we’re seeing is that we can combine several databases to yield a more complete and more reliable search.”

Evalueserve, which employs 210 people in intellectual property research, found hundreds of patents belonging to Google, including a mobile phone case and software relating to mobile telephony. There were also several patents involving the delivery of dynamic videogame ads.

The firm said: “Since these leading edge companies are constantly innovating and creating barriers for their competitors, they are also continuously filing patent applications and getting many if not most of them granted. Hence, searching through databases… is one way of gaining an insight into the strategic direction of these companies.”

Author: Robert Bain
Published on the 29th October 2007

Patent Office Rule Changes Alter the Patent Landscape

Search, you’ll find Google ads on mobile, TV

The Financial Express
Vrishti Beniwal
Posted online: Wednesday, October 03, 2007 at 0116 hrs IST

New Delhi, Oct 2 Google may soon reach out to mobile phone users, TV viewers and video game lovers. A search by Evalueserve into the database of the US Patent and Trademark Office revealed that the California-based company is looking at newer fields like broadcasting ads directly to TV, embedding ads in video games and payments at shopping malls via mobile phones.

Currently, the search engine gets most of its revenue from Internet advertising, with Google-owned sites generating $2.49 billion, or 64% of total revenues, in the April-June quarter. But now the search engine is expanding its horizon and may soon come up with a receiver circuit that can enhance the performance of an audio/video receiver such as digital TV.

It may also come up with a method for enhancing video games systems by providing ads, prizes and other benefits to gamers.

A visual mobile search system that utilises images captured by cellphone cameras is also on the cards. This may facilitate image recognition, bar code reading and automatic payment processing at Google servers.

According to Madan Mohan, director (consulting), ICT practice, Frost & Sullivan, “Most of these services are search-based, which is the core competency of Google. It is looking at finding consumption patterns through algorithm, which will help target customised ads to the right individual. This kind of personal information is not available till now. Concerns have been raised that this might be a violation of individual privacy.”

A Google spokesperson, when contacted, said, "We file patent applications on a variety of ideas that our employees come up with. Some of those ideas later mature into real products or services, some don't. Prospective product announcements should not necessarily be inferred from our patent applications.”

Meanwhile, Yahoo is also looking at the concept of Television 2.0, that is similar to Web 2.0. This implies TV will become an online social network where users will interact in real time. “It will no more be ‘I produce, you consume’. Companies are looking at a two-way interaction platform, where the user participates in content creation,” said Mohan.

Domestic auto-makers speed up patent filings

Business Standard
Rediff
http://www.rediff.com/money/2007/sep/25auto.htm
September 25, 2007 03:22 IST

Faced with growing competition from global automotive companies, domestic auto-makers are furiously patenting their technology as a way of defending themselves against the competition.

This is reflected in the fact that the number of patents filed by the six top local auto makers in the country jumped 85 per cent in just 18 months since January 2005 against the 10-year period between Januray 1995 and December 2004, according to data from Evalueserve, a firm that tracks patent filings.

In contrast, companies like Maruti [Get Quote] Suzuki, Hero Honda and Ashok Leyland [Get Quote] (which has a tie-up with Iveco) that depend on their global partners for the bulk of their technology account for just 2 per cent of all patents filed.

"Automobile companies realise that foreign models will find ready takers in the Indian market and falling import tariffs are lowering the price barrier. With increasing competition, patented technology that offers new features can help save market share," said Vaishali Jajoo, an auto analyst with Angel Broking, adding: "In the future, companies will use patents on diesel, gas and hybrid models to tap market share."

The overall success rate between patents filed and those that were eventually granted -- a reflection of in-house research and development ability -- is also impressive.

The number of patents granted to the major auto makers -- Bajaj, TVS [Get Quote], Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) and Tata Motors [Get Quote] -- as a ratio to the number of patents filed is 24.38 per cent.

Among the companies, Chennai-based TVS Motors, which was recently accused of infringing patent rights by Bajaj Auto [Get Quote], is the leader in terms of the sheer volume of patent filings in India.

According to data from Evalueserve, the company has filed 131 patents to the Indian Patent Office since January 1995, of which 70 per cent have been filed since January 2005, speeding up after its joint venture with Suzuki ended in 2001.

However, when it comes to the success rate, Tata Motors takes the top honours, with the ratio between patents filed and issued at 60 per cent.

"Our expenditure on research and development (R&D) has always been over 2 per cent of turnover. The frequency of filing patents will also increase in the future," said the company, which is the maker of the first fully indigenously built car, Indica.

The company's expenditure on R&D was Rs 797 crore in 2006-07, a 67 per cent increase over the previous year.

In terms of the success rate of the number of patents filed and applications accepted, Tata Motors is followed by Bajaj Auto, with a success rate of 22 per cent on 53 filings since January 1995.

Among the prominent patents to its name is the DTS-i technology (Digital Twin Spark-Injection) that powers its flagship brand Pulsar. Earlier this year, Bajaj Auto had introduced two variants of this technology.

TVS Motors comes third with a success rate of 20 per cent on 131 applications filed over the same period. The company executives refused to talk on any patent-related subject owing to the dispute with Bajaj.

The company has used technologies like VTi (variable transmission ignition) and RTR (racing throttle response) in its motorcycles. However, the company said it had kept a minimum benchmark level of 2.5 per cent of total sales on R&D.

Utility vehicle manufacturer M&M is in the fourth position with a 13.33 per cent success rate on the 30 applications it has filed since January 2005.

"Our patents are mainly in the area of engines, ergonomics and thermal management. Intellectual property rights (IPR) will be the backbone of M&M as our range of products, platforms and systems are wider now. Personally, I have four patents issued in my name in the US, Europe and Japan," said Arun Jaura, senior vice-president (R&D and global product development), M&M