LPU Emerges as a Leading Patent Enthusiast Amongst Indian Universities
Universities and Institutes are considered to be the most important foundation for growth of any country. It is the place where most of the basic ideas lead to researches and converted into inventions. Meanwhile, the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) gives a way to inventors to protect their invention from others and spread their idea worldwide. IPR helps in eventually converting an inventor’s idea into a new start-up.
The world Intellectual Property Indicator report of 2019 said that applicants around the world filed 3.3 million patent applications in 2018, which was an increase of 5.2% from the previous year. India filed 3,473 patent applications in 2018 which was 7.5% more than in 2017. It also reported a high share of non-resident filings with 67.5%. The non-resident filing means, an application filed with a patent office of a given country/jurisdiction by an applicant residing in another country/jurisdiction.
Resident: Applicant belongs to the same country in which the patent is filed
Non-Resident: Applicant belongs to the different country from which the patent is filed
In India, Research and Technology Institutes filed over 25,000 patent applications (from 2009 to 2019), but only one-fifth of those were granted. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR, New Delhi) filed 2,000+ patent applications whereas, 3500+ patent applications were filed by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in last 10 years.
Source: ECONOMICTIMES
Patent applications by IIT contribute to nearly 18 to 20 percent of patents filed by all Universities and Institutes each year.
The above graph shows contribution of IIT, Bharath University, Amity University and Lovely Professional University in patent filings since the past 10 years (with respect to all Universities and Institutes). The graph indicates Lovely Professional University (LPU) as the major contributor over IIT or any other university or institute.
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Patent Filing Trends – LPU (2019)
India’s first ICAR accredited private university – Lovely Professional University (LPU) emerged as top patent filer in the year 2019. LPU has been focusing its research and development unit towards building socially inclined projects. As a result, LPU filed the highest number of patents in year 2019 amongst India’s top Institutes and Universities. It is converging its research focus to some really trending topics such as projects in Pharmaceutical, Medical Technology, Computer Technology, IOT, Environment Technology (to name a few). LPU set a new record of filing 361 patents in year 2019 as a single entity only after IIT Mumbai and Bharath University which filed 152 patents in year 2015 and 199 patents by the year 2019 respectively.
Top 25 Patent Filing Indian Universities and Institutes in 2019
The World Intellectual Property Indicator report of 2019 said that India had a greater number of patent applications in 2018 than 2017. Whereas, total 2922 number of patent application were filed by Indian universities, institutes and schools in 2019 alone. The below graph shows, top 25 patent filing Indian universities and institutes in 2019. Lovely Professional University (LPU) filed the highest patent applications (361) in year 2019.
Top Patent Filing Universities and Institutes in Last 10 Years
The below graph shows the patent records of a few top patent filing universities and institutes in the last ten years:
LPU – Patent Industry Coverage
Lovely Professional University has filed 410 patents till date including 361 patents in 2019. LPU majorly covered all the industries and technical fields and has put efforts in taking the technologies a step forward.
The below figure shows that the growth of patents filed in 2019 has been impressive when compared with their track record of LPU till 2018. They have done exceptional R&D and have become more active in a few technical domains like communication equipment, medical and dental instruments, domestic appliances, computers and peripheral equipment, etc. and showed a good percentage of patents filing growth.
LPU has also entered new technical domains such as motor vehicles, agricultural and forestry machinery, transport equipment, etc. in 2019.
LPU – All Patent Legal Status
The graph below shows the current legal status of LPU patents. Out of 410 patents – 396 are filed, 8 are granted, 3 have expired, 2 have been withdrawn/surrendered and 1 has been rejected/refused/suspended.
LPU – Patents based Classes
Most of the patent applications filed by LPU in 2019 falls under 3 IPC (International Patent Classifications) classes:
- H04 (Electric communication technique);
- A61 (Medical or veterinary science; Hygiene); and
- G06 (Computing; Calculating; Counting)
Glimpse of Patents filed by LPU
The below table is a glimpse of a few patents filed by LPU in different technical domains:
| Patent Number | Title | Filing Date | Technical Domain/Details | Images |
| IN325490A1 | Improved oral targeted drug delivery system | 17-Sep-2010 | Medical or Veterinary Science: The granted patent discloses an improved Drug Delivery System for diseases having activity in colon cancer, ulcerative colitis, etc. The system offers advantages of drug delivery without undesirable side-effects. | NA |
| IN201911048246A | An apparatus for fully automated electricity billing and consumption notification | 26-Nov-2019 | Measuring Apparatus: The Patent Application discloses an apparatus for fully automated billing and consumption notification. The invention uses IoT platform for real-time energy consumption reading and sends notification to users’ registered email. |  |
| IN201911049337A | A novel spoiler system for generating electricity in cars | 30-Nov-2019 | Electricity Generation in Cars: This patent application discloses the process of connecting parallel connected axial fans generating voltage output to rectifier which further feeds the same to an auxiliary battery. |  |
| IN201911052265A | Solar powered cost effective air purifier system with natural filters | 17-Dec-2019 | Solar powered air filter: This patent application discloses an air filter which is powered by solar energy which measures air quality. The air filter passes the air through a set of natural filters to filter the air. |  |
| IN201811019564A | A novel and eco-friendly process to remove salinity from sea water | 25-May-2018 | Water purification: This patent application discloses a cost effective and eco-friendly process for removal of salinity from sea water. |  |
LPU and Social Problem Solutions
Lovely Professional University (LPU) has come up with solutions for disease and social problems persisting in India. Some of the solutions are mentioned below:
1. ‘Sugar-Free’ Ayurvedic Asava – A Chemical-free Herbal Solution for Diabetics:
Researcher’s team from Lovely Professional University has patented (IN317368A1) – a safe solution for diabetic patients to create sugar-free Asava formula. The sugar-free Asava formulation has been prepared using anti-diabetic herbs as its fermenting initiators which can be directly consumed by the patients with or without water. This reduces the side effects of anti-diabetic drugs and maintains insulin level in the patients.
Source: INDIATODAY
It is estimated that the Indian population has 72.96 million cases of diabetes in adult. Prevalence of diabetes in India has been recorded at 11.8% in the last four years; with known diabetes cases at 8% and new diabetes cases at 3.8%.
Source: LIVEMINT
2. Algae-Based Air Purifier:
Student researchers from Lovely Professional University and Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISER) have developed an algae-based air purifier. The Algae based air purifier neutralises 98 per cent of the harmful gases and particulate matter, further infuses oxygen in the filtered air. The team is now working on algae-based face masks which they are expecting to develop by mid-2020.
Source: EDEXLIVE
According to the IQAir AirVisual and Greenpeace report, seven of the 10 most polluted cities in the world are in India (including 22 of the worst 30), with Gurugram topping the list, followed by Ghaziabad.
Source: WORLDECONOMICFORUM
3. Cost-Effective Bio-Filter:
Team of research-scientists at the Department of Chemistry, LPU has developed an eco-friendly & cost-effective solution for permanent removal of hardness from water with the help of natural substances like grass, leaves, petals and more.
Provisional Patent Application No. 201711025361
Source: LPU
4. ‘Smart’ Drug Delivery System:
Team of research-scientists at the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences at LPU have developed Smart (targeted) drug delivery technique which delivers medication to a patient and increases its concentration in required parts of the body. The Patent Office under ‘Intellectual Property India’ has issued related patent certificate No. IN325490A1 for ‘Improved Oral Targeted Drug Delivery System’.
Source: LPU
5. Flying Farmer:
Lovely Professional University (LPU) students have designed a drone called ‘Flying Farmer’ that can be deployed in farming and field survey for pesticide treatment and solving weed detection problems. LPU did not file a patent, but instead kept this technology in an open source so that it can be available to any farmer, anywhere at a reasonable price.
Source: KRISHIJAGRAN
Concluding Thoughts
The above findings suggest that Indian Institutes and Universities are focused on finding solutions for social and real-time challenges which are contributing towards technological advancement, with a vision to empower Indian citizens.
– Ajay Sharma, Parteek Saxena (Engineering) and The Editorial Team
