Innovation assessment through patent analysis

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. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.