Technovation 21 (2001) 245–252 www.elsevier.com/locate/technovation Innovation assessment through patent analysis Biju Paul Abraham * , Soumyo D. Moitra Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, P.O. Box No. 16757, Alipore P.O., Calcutta 700 027, India Received 1 March 2000; accepted 4 May 2000 Abstract Indian industry in the 1990s has had to cope both with the liberalization of imports into the country and rapid technological developments and innovations occurring in both product and process technologies. To come up with competitive new products and processes, Indian industry needs to have access to detailed information on technological innovations that it has to compete with. One major method of obtaining such information could be an analysis of Indian patent data. Since such data might signal the kinds of product and processes foreign companies are planning to introduce in India, an analysis of Indian patent data could provide firms with information that could help them with their strategic planning efforts. An analysis of patents accepted by the Indian patent office in the fields Electric Communication Techniques over the last five years is carried with the intention of assessing whether data available in these patent applications would enable Indian firms to accurately assess technological advances and innovations occurring in this sector. It is also compared with data on patents granted by the US Patent Office. Public policy measures that could make Indian patent data more useful for Indian firms are also suggested.  2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Patents; Indian patents data; Innovation trends; Technological level; Firm patenting strategy; Patents policy 1. Introduction Indian industry has had to face two particularly daunt- ing challenges in the 1990s. A protected market has given way to a liberalized environment, where it faces competition from imported products. Indian industry has also had to cope with rapid technological developments and innovation occurring in both product and process technologies. To come up with new products and processes, Indian industry needs to have access to detailed information on technological innovations that it has to compete with. While a search of patent literature and innovation sur- veys carried out in a competitor’s parent country could give some idea of innovations taking place there, such information could be misleading because the competitor need not introduce that product in the Indian market. A more reliable method of assessing competition could be an analysis of Indian patent data. Since com- petitors would normally apply for an Indian patent only * Corresponding author. Tel.: + 91-33-467-8300/04; fax: + 91-33- 467-8307. E-mail addresses: abraham@iimcal.ac.in (B.P. Abraham), sdmo- itra@hotmail.com (S.D. Moitra). 0166-4972/01/$ - see front matter  2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII:S0166-4972(00)00040-7 if they intend to exploit an innovation in the Indian mar- ket, an analysis of Indian patent data could provide firms with information that could help in their strategic plan- ning efforts. This paper tries to assess the suitability of Indian pat- ent data for understanding trends in technology develop- ment and innovation levels. An analysis of patents accepted by the Indian patent office over the last five years is carried out with the intention of assessing whether data available in these patent applications would enable Indian firms to accurately assess technological advances and innovations occurring in sectors relevant to them. 2. The Indian patent system The Indian Patenting System is unique compared with the patenting systems followed in the rest of the world. It is this uniqueness that makes an analysis of patents filed in India so important for firms that operate within the country. While the rest of the world follows the pro- visions of the Paris Convention for the protection of intellectual property, Indian patenting regulations are based on the Indian Patents Act of 1970 (Sangal and Singh, 1987).