The Hindu News Update Service

Bangalore, Sept. 27 (PTI): A confident Indian Inc, boosted by sustained high growth, seems willing to shed its lethargy as many domestic firms are looking to obtain US patents with a view to protecting their interests as they go about expanding their global presence, US law experts have said.

"In the backdrop of India going global and Indian companies making 141 overseas acquisitions in 2005, it is becoming increasingly imperative for Indian companies to apply for US patents," Anand Sharma, a partner with the US law firm Finnegan Henderson Farabow Garret and Dunner said.

About three quarters of acquisitions conducted by Indian companies since 2003 have been cross-border. The value of Indian cross-border Merger and Acquisition deals in the first 10 months of 2006 was $ 23 billion, he said.

32 per cent of all foreign M&As from 1995 to August 2006 has taken place in North America, indicating that Indian firms would go in for more US patents to safeguard their interest given their expanding portfolio.

Owing to its economic prowess, a US patent is valuable for Indian firms in terms of increasing attractiveness to potential global partners, to protect or create a market share, protect technology, provide deterrence to others and allow an option of cross licensing if accused of infringement

India had just four US patent grants in 1980,which increased to 23 in 1990. The number dramatically increased to 403 in 2005 and 506 in 2006.

The total US patent grant tally for India is 2,831 as of now, Robert Converse of the firm said during a seminar on the "The Value of US Patents in a Global Economy."

Indian biotech companies are making huge strides in terms of innovations, making it imperative for them to apply for US patents to protect their intellectual property rights.

Japan tops the list of US patent grants with 646,106 followed by Germany with 241,584. The UK has 91,881, Taiwan 71,518 and South Korea 46,773 followed by China with 4,127, patents, Robert said.

The US is expected to amend its Patent Law which would allow companies to apply for patents in their names instead of in the names of the inventors. The proposed legislation, awaiting Senate vote in October, would replace the first invent clause with the first to file. It would also abolish the best mode requirement and establish a post-grant opposition, another US law expert David Forman said.

The US patent trends appear to favour high tech industries like telecommunications but put at disadvantage pharmaceuticals and biotechnology sectors.

Currently all the top 10 US patentees are global companies with many of them domiciled outside US.

IBM tops the list with 3621 patents, Samsung with 2,451 patents in 2006. Canon was at the third with 2,366 patents while Matsushita had 2229 patents.

During litigations, US patents were very useful. For example, in the NTP vs RIM (Blackberry) case , the matter was finally settled with over $ 600 million.

During acquisitions, mergers and venture capital, patents help greatly. Postini struck $ 625 million in the Google deal, the experts said.

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