6 times growth in IoT patents last 5 years

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SME Times News Bureau | 05 Jun, 2020
There has been six times growth in Internet of Things (IoT) patents in India over the last five years and more than 80 per cent of these patents were related to applications pertaining to Industry 4.0, with the healthcare and automobile industry leading the way, a Nasscom report said on Friday.

Nearly 6,000 IoT Patents were filed in India from 2009-2019, of which over 5,000 were filed in the last five years.

Over 70 per cent of the total IoT patents came from from the R&D centres of global and companies while start-ups accounted for about 7 per cent of such patents, said the report titled ‘IoT: Driving the Patent Growth Story in India'.

"Emerging technologies such as IoT, AI, Blockchain and others are playing a crucial role in enabling an interconnected world as well as creating the new normal. I am confident that the IoT innovation especially with focus in healthcare and manufacturing will gain more impetus in the tech enabled new normal," said Debjani Ghosh, President, Nasscom.

Nearly 95 per cent of IoT patents were relate to hardware components, with connectivity network and sensors being the leading sub-technologies.

Manufacturers of electronics and electrical equipments, semiconductor devices and computer and telecom equipments together accounted for over 60% of the IoT patents filed in India by business entities over 2009-19. The share for IT-ITeS companies stood at 13 per cent.

"Innovation has always been at the forefront of fighting any crisis. This report is part of our series of reports that track patent filing trends in the country across emerging technologies," said Ghosh.

In terms of applications areas, patents pertaining to smart electrical appliances and smart wearables lead in the home automation category.

"Disaster Prevention is one of the key areas which can use IoT in assisting epidemiologists to trace patient zero and the affected contacts by overlaying geographic information system on IoT mobile data. Smart cellular wrist bands can also help in effective quarantine compliance," the report noted.

According to the IT industry's apex body, patent filing will also see an increase in the coming years primarily driven by healthcare, automation, manufacturing and supply chain, 5G and security systems.

"IoT innovation will help countries rebound in the Post-COVID era, with an increased focus in healthcare and hygiene. Healthcare will be modernized with tele health and remote patient monitoring, through devices such as connected thermometers, advanced data collection and processing and smart wearables," the report highlighted.