By IB Times Staff Reporter: Subscribe to IB's RSS feed
September 24, 2010 10:43 AM EDT
Indian IT major Infosys set to witness a significant rise in its patent portfolio as many of its patents filed in both India and U.S. are close to being granted.
Infosys, which is investing heavily on patent filing in India and the US, has filed most of the patent applications in the last four-five years, according to a report from Innomantra Consulting.
Bangalore-based Infosys is awaiting approval for over 200 patents filed in India and U.S.
As it takes at least three to five years to get a patent granted from the date of filing, a large number of the filed applications of Infosys are probably close to being granted, which will see a dramatic increase in the number of patents granted to the company.
The report added that Indian IT companies - Infosys, TCS, Wipro, Mahindra Satyam, and HCL - have filed higher number of patents this year in U.S. and Europe, after a modest drop in 2008 and 2009. However, the study shows that number of patents filed is still limited and needs to accelerate.
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The $50-billion Indian IT industry generates over 50 percent of its revenue from the US and the rest comes from Europe and rest of the world.
The largest Indian IT services firm TCS has invested in seeking patent protection in many other countries apart from India and the US, while HCL, Mahindra Satyam, and Wipro possess a lean patent portfolio, the report said.
"Major Indian IT companies are gradually upgrading from coding factory to idea factory," said V. Lokesh CEO of Innomantra Consulting.
Lokesh said focused in-house IP development and commercialization of these innovations are essential for Indian IT companies to have a sustained growth in terms of intellectual wealth creation and patent portfolio.
An accelerated push on patents would also help Indian IT companies to stay ahead in the technology licensing market, Lokesh added.
No Engineering Patents
The study also found that though the Indian IT majors serve their clients in mechanical engineering services or integrated engineering services, there were no patent filings in these domains.
This seems interesting especially in the context where the Indian engineering services are projected to grow almost $50 billion a year by 2020 from the current $1 billion, according to a study by technology consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton.
"As cost pressure increases, Indian software companies need to leverage their domain knowledge into a definitive advantage over their competitors by transforming into innovation centres, and should move from IT services to engineering services offering end-to-end product solutions," Lokesh said.
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