Informatics Publishing Limited

Tarakanta Jana ¹, Siddhartha Dulakakhoria ¹, Nupur Wadia ¹, Deepak Bindal ¹, Ankit Tripathi ¹

Affiliations
1 Patent Informatics Division, National Institute of Science Communication and Information Resource, 14, SV Marg, New Delhi 110 067, IN

Abstract

An attempt has been made in this study to present an overview of the patenting intensity of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries. Patent data originating from SAARC countries from 1995 to 2011, filed through World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), European Patent Office and United States Patent and Trademark Office were collected and analysed. Annual intellectual property (IP) reports of India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh patent offices and WIPO annual IP reports were used to congregate patents filed/granted in the respective patent offices. During the study period, inventors from India have been highly active in filling international patents, whereas a modest international patenting activity was observed in case of the remaining SAARC nations. At the country level, a comparison based on the domestic patenting intensity and relative quality indicators shows that Sri Lanka is the strongest scientific country among the SAARC nations.

Keywords

Innovation, Intellectual Property, Patents, SAARC.

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Ankit Tripathi ¹, Tarakanta Jana ², Nupur Wadia ³, Deepak Bindal ³, Swarnil Dey ⁴

Affiliations
1 Centre for Health Informatics, National Institute of Health and Family Welfare, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, New Delhi 110 067, IN
2 Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research, Mathura Road, New Delhi 110 025, IN
3 Patent Informatics Division, CSIR-National Institute of Science Communication and Information Resources, 14 Satsang Vihar Marg, New Delhi 110 067, IN
4 Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur 721 302, IN

Abstract

Computational biology is relatively a young branch of science, which has experienced tremendous growth in the last two decades. The seeds of this inter-discipline were sown at the end of the seventies, when computers became simpler to use, some biology laboratories decided to adopt them, mainly for storing and managing genomic data. As a result, there was quick completion of projects that would have otherwise taken several years. With a snowballing effect, genome sequencing projects generated large amounts of data whose management required more powerful computers. The advent of the internet has allowed all the research laboratories to share their data, and make them available worldwide through some new genomic and proteomic data banks, such as Gene-Bank, European Molecular Biology Laboratory Data Library and many more. A patent portfolio shows the state of the art of research and development in a specific discipline. Patenting an invention is still tough in many countries, especially when the major part of the claim invention involves mathematical formulae, algorithms and computer programs. These per se are not patentable in many countries; however, they can be protected under copyrights as literary works or trade secrets. It is well known that mathematical formulae, algorithms and computer programs mainly form the core of computational biology. Till date, no study has been made to measure inventive progress in this new inter-discipline. The study shows the research and invention have occurred in a wide range of interdisciplines, including functional genomics, molecular structure, sequence comparison, molecular simulations, machine learning, data visualization, database development and inventive activity confined to a handful of industrially developed and developing nations, of which majority are privately owned.

Keywords

Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Patent Analysis, Research Trends Inventions.

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