Murky waters: software innovations and business methods in India

01-04-2013

Shivendra Singh

Murky waters: software innovations and business methods in India

Software companies have long struggled with how best to protect their IP in India, as Shivendra Singh explains.

The software industry has been one of the most promising sectors of the global economy. Many software companies come up with creative business models in their endeavour to grow. In recent years, it has been observed that software companies ardently seek intellectual property protection as part of their business strategies to build on their assets.

In India, software and computer programs are protected under the Indian Copyright Act 1957. Patent protection in India is governed by the Indian Patents Act 1970. Indian software companies such as Infosys, TCS, Wipro and many multinational companies have been proactive in filing patent applications for their innovations in India.

This is evident from the annual report of 2010–2011 published by the Indian Patent Office, which indicates that in the year 2010–2011, around 219 applications were filed in the field of bioinformatics and 9,594 applications in the field of computer science/electronics, which is an increase of 12.6 percent over the previous year. In the same year, 892 patents were granted in the field of computer science/electronics.


India, software, business methods, IPAB, Google

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