India is favourite destination for Drone Technology Patent, said Binod Singh
Drones are being used commercially all around the world and in India its technology is the point of discussion post high-level policy changes by Government of India. Beside defense drone tech has vast application in the commercial field as well as socio-economic sectors like agriculture. Drone technology investments are surging fast as research forecasts show explosive growth. Drones are currently a rapidly expanding industry and so its IPR requirement is also getting more attention. To check the status of Drone Technology Patent filing trends in India ‘Einfolge Technologies – a global leader in Patent and Market research’ recently conducted a study and findings are quite impressive.
In this study, Einfolge have covered last two decade’s patent filing trend and did in-depth analysis. According to the findings, drone technology patent filing is getting momentum. It shows increase in filing during first quarter of 2022 (Jan- Mar 22). While in 2021 total 559 applications were filed but this year (2022) 258 application have been filed only in first quarter and the number of applications filed considering India as priority is getting an upward trend. There was fluctuation in filing drone patents in India during 2020-21. The drop was due to Covid-19 pandemic repercussion.
If we look closely at the filing trend in the last two decades. Drone technology applications filed prior to 2000 was only 744. Post-2000 especially looking in the last 5 years through the first quarter of 2022 the total no. of filing has crossed 14334. Interestingly, there are more foreign applicants filing in India in the field of drone-related technology compared to resident Indian applicants. US applicants top the filing, followed by Europe and India as third in the category.
“Drone adoption is expected to alter in the year ahead as funding in the field expands coupled with a favourable government atmosphere. The government’s willingness to deploy drones for a range of uses will provide a huge boost, pushing the homegrown industry’s estimated value higher. Drones are being adopted to various use cases, especially for critical inspection and deliveries. Apart from this, the Government of India is ensuring that technology is no longer intimidating for farmers. To help the agriculture sector GOI has taken important steps like Swamitva, Drone rule 2021, SOP for Agri drone, Hara Bhara Project and PLI scheme for drones and drone components. New regulatory rules for using drones in India are built on the premise of “trust, self-certification, and monitoring with the minimal scope of intrusion.” Therefore, any impact of these new Indian government rules and regulations on patent filing can be expected in the forthcoming”, said Binod Singh, a renowned Patent Research expert and Entrepreneur, Co-founder and Director of Einfolge- a global leader in Patent and Market Research.
Binod Singh talks about how drone technology is going to play a key role in empowering and modernize lives and how Einfolge have been helping companies and institutes to Generate, Protect, Execute and Sell their IP assets. He informed, “We have been working in drone technologies for the last 7+ years. We have dedicated and specialized team to handle drone technologies patents. Einfolge has created IP portfolio for a UK-based drone company. The company has developed a large number of patents in the field. Einfolge has successfully got grant of the patents in the U.S.A, U.K and other markets while the Indian patent in the process. Just based on their IP asset the company has been valued at 40 million USD for investment for further research and development. Besides companies we also helps individuals and startups for filling patent from India as well as out of India.”