Many industry experts, academicians and government officials believe that stringent patent laws play spoilsport in blocking almost 50,000 grass-root innovations from seeing light of the day.

Leading industry body ASSOCHAM called for adopting a utility model law to provide fast and low-cost protection of technical inventions aimed at encouraging innovation by Indian entrepreneurs in various sectors.
 
A utility model is an intellectual property right similar to a patent but usually has a shorter term – often 6 to 15 years – and less stringent requirements. Nearly 55 countries follow the utility model with some of them being over a century old.
 
Such law is required in a country like India where people are primarily very innovative but have not been able to commercially exploit their inventions for various reasons, said The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM).
 
“It would be useful to have a chapter in the Patents Act 1970 devoted to utility model and its inter-play with the procedural provisions,” said secretary general D.S. Rawat.
 
Many industry experts, academicians and government officials believe that stringent patent laws play spoilsport in blocking almost 50,000 grass-root innovations from seeing light of the day. Section 3(d) of the Patents Act is thought to be at the centre of the problem in recognising incremental innovations as patentable subject matter.
 
Indian rural hinterland is home to thousands of innovations but a patent is elusive as most of these are improvements which cannot be patented – like an improvised tractor that costs one-third of a brand new, ATM that does not require pin numbers and works on fingerprint recognition, and a Pukapura – a smoke house used to dry rubber sheets – requiring 60 per cent less fuel.
 
Thus experts advocate the cause of granting intellectual property protection to incremental improvements which once protected can prove to be a buoyant area of research and development. What needs to be addressed, however, is defining the threshold for granting utility patent for purposes of novelty and innovative steps.
 
“It therefore has to be lower than what is required for grant of a patent but above a minimum benchmark,” said Mr Rawat.
 
According to the World Intellectual Property Organisation, utility models are primarily used for mechanical innovations and particularly suited for small and medium enterprises that make minor improvements to and adaptations of existing products.