India opens first of four new intellectual property facilities

Following on the heels of its last minute maneuvering to modernize its intellectual property laws, the Indian government announced yesterday the opening of its first “integrated intellectual property rights office.”

The new facility is in New Delhi and is one of four planned across the country.

The Commerce Minister called the new facility “state-of-the-art” and “comparable to the best in the world.”

While those quotes aren’t particularly interesting, the following caught my eye:

“The growing importance of intellectual property is seen from a four-fold rise in patent application filings in India in the past five years - from 5,000 in 1999-2000 to 17,000 last year, he said.”

Four-fold in five years.  I’m not sure if those numbers are skewed by the so-called mailbox applications in any manner, but four-fold is noteworthy no matter how you look at it.