Patent Portfolio of Major Indian IT Companies A Measure of Innovation 2010 This report provides an insight into the impor- tance of innovation by analyzing the Patent Port- folio of five major Indian Information Technol- ogy Companies - HCL Technologies, Infosys Tech- nologies, Mahindra Satyam, Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro. Patent Portfolio of Major Indian IT Companies A Measure of Innovation 2010 Contents Executive Summary 9 Introduction 10 Vertical Market for Indian IT Sector 10 Exhibit 1: Vertical Market for Indian IT Sector 2007 - 08 10 Scope of the study & Research Methodology 11 Databases and Tools 11 Organizations Considered for the Study 12 HCL Technologies Limited 12 Infosys Technologies Limited 13 Mahindra Satyam 14 Tata Consultancy Services Limited 15 Wipro Limited 15 Company Speak 17 Infosys 17 TCS 17 Wipro 17 HCL Technologies Limited 19 Exhibit 2: Geographical Distribution of Patent Filings - HCL 19 Exhibit 3: IPC category-wise Distribution - HCL 19 Exhibit 4: Granted Patents and Pending Applications - HCL 20 Exhibit 5: Timeline of Patent filings - HCL 20 Infosys Technologies Limited 22 Exhibit 6: Geographical Distribution of Patent Filings - Infosys 22 Exhibit 7: IPC category-wise Distribution - Infosys 22 Exhibit 8: Granted Patents and Patent Pending - Infosys 23 Exhibit 9: Timeline of Patent filings - Infosys 23 Mahindra Satyam 25 Exhibit 10: Geographical Distribution of Patent Filings - Mahindra Satyam 25 Exhibit 11: IPC category-wise Distribution - Mahindra Satyam 25 Exhibit 12: Granted Patents and Pending Applications - Mahindra Satyam 26 Exhibit 13: Timeline of Patent filings - Mahindra Satyam 26 Tata Consultancy Services Limited 28 Exhibit 14: Geographical Distribution of Patent Filings - TCS 28 Exhibit 15: IPC category-wise Distribution - TCS 28 6 Innomantra Consulting Exhibit 16: Granted Patents and Patent Pending - TCS 28 Exhibit 17: Patent Filing Trend - TCS 29 Wipro Limited 31 Exhibit 18: Geographical Distribution of Patent Filings - Wipro 31 Exhibit 19: IPC category-wise Distribution - Wipro 31 Exhibit 20: Granted Patents and Patent Pending - Wipro 31 Exhibit 21: Timeline of Patent filings - Wipro 32 Comparative Analysis 34 Geographical Distribution of Patent pending & Granted patents 34 Distribution according to IPC classification 35 Exhibit 22: Patent Filed in Classification ‘Computer Technology’ 35 Exhibit 23: Patent Filed in Classification ‘IT Methods for Management’ 35 Exhibit 24: Patent Filed in Classification ‘Audio Visual Technology’ 36 Exhibit 25: Patent Filed in Classification ‘Telecommunication’ 36 Timeline Depicting Patent Applications 37 Exhibit 26: Filing Trends of HCL, Infosys, Mahindra Satyam, TCS and Wipro in USA 37 Exhibit 27: Filing Trends of HCL, Infosys, Mahindra Satyam, TCS and Wipro in India 37 Comment 38 Conclusion 39 Appendix 42 HCL’s List of filings in India 43 Infosys List of its filings in India 44 Infosys List of its filings in USA 50 Mahindra Satyam’s List of its filings in USA 55 TCS’s List of its filings in India 57 TCS’s List of its filings in USA 61 TCS’s List of its filings in European Union 61 TCS’s List of its filings in Japan 62 TCS’s List of its filings in Korea 63 TCS’s List of its filings in Australia 63 TCS’s List of its filings in Canada 63 TCS’s List of its filings in China 64 TCS’s List of its filings in South Africa 64 Wipro’s List of its filings in India 65 Wipro’s List of its filings in US 66 About Us 67 Notes 68 7 Patent Portfolio of Major Indian IT Companies - A Measure of Innovation Look at the richest men a hundred years ago, they all made their “ money extracting natural resources or moving them around. All today’s richest men make their money out of Intellectual Property. - Mark Getty Founder of Getty Images ” 8 Innomantra Consulting Patent Portfolio of Major Indian IT Companies - A Measure of Innovation Executive Summary The purpose of the study was to analyze the importance given by selected major Indian IT firms to innovation based on their Patent portfolio as a measure. Analysis of the Patenting activity provides an insight into current trends in intellectual property generation apart from providing an account of innovation and technological development taking place in the Information Technology sector. The study summarizes results of the research that was conducted on HCL Technologies Limited, Infosys Technologies Limited, Mahindra Satyam , Tata Consultancy Services Limited and Wipro Limited. This report covers filing trends of the above mentioned companies along with status of Patents, International Patent Classification and Priority Date. The study also provides the filing trends and status with the field of engineering to which they belong, along with details of all Patents filed by these companies since their inception. Our research suggests that after a moderate retrenchment in the years 2008-2009, the IT industry in India is recommitted to pursue innovation. The fact that the said companies consider innovation to be one of their key assets and are committed to boost their spending on Research & Development and innovation is evident from the increase in number of Patents that have been filed by these companies in US Patent Office, European Patent Office and Intellectual Property Office India. The study details the challenges associated with software Patenting in India and postulates that despite the restrictions of obtaining a software Patent per se in India, the IT industry is taking a prominent stand on generating and protecting Intellectual Property in India and abroad. Since the year 2000, awareness about Innovation and Intellectual Property Management has been on the rise in the IT industry. It is evident from the Patent filing statistics of the Intellectual Property Office India that the number of Patent filings in the field of computer science has been on the rise since 2004. Across the world, a large number of organizations are considering innovation as top priority, and consequently raising the investment on innovation. In this study, the trends indicate that innovation has been geared towards minor improvements to existing products and services as against innovation targeting newer products. However, the companies are broadening types of innovation functions they are targeting. The emphasis on product development and idea generation is increasing. 9 Patent Portfolio of Major Indian IT Companies - A Measure of Innovation Introduction The Information Technology sector in India experienced an exceptional growth as a result of increased globalization and has emerged as a key sector of the economy in terms of its contribution to export earnings, investments, employment opportunities and overall socio- economic development. Notwithstanding competitive pressures from around the world, India continues to be an attractive source for IT sourcing due to low cost of operations, high quality of products and services and availability of highly skilled manpower.1 Vertical Market for Indian IT Sector Banking, Financial Services & Insurance (BFSI) and Hi-Tech/Telecom are two key verticals served by the IT industry in India. These two account for more than 60 percent of the IT space in India. Other key verticals include Manufacturing, Retail, HealthCare, Airlines & Transportation, Construction and Utilities in the decreasing order of percentage of the total IT Market. Exhibit 1: Vertical Market for Indian IT Sector 2007-08 1 BFSI – Banking, Financial, Services and Insurance; In 2008-2009, the global recession emerged as a key concern to the sector since the industry has a significant dependence on external demand. It forced clients to cut their IT budgets, delay payments and vouch for severe price cuts & waivers. This necessitated a transformation for the IT industry and it began to re-engineer the challenges posed by the macro-economic environment. The change in the demand outlook prompted the industry to adopt greater robustness and flexibility in its business models which would benefit the industry in the long run. The changed environment encouraged companies to, concentrate more on the domestic market and to diversify beyond their core offerings and markets in order to have a larger market penetration and operational flexibility. These measures adopted by the industry have widened its leadership position in the ever-growing global sourcing market.2 Another approach for Indian IT companies to maintain their global competitive advantage has been to move up the value chain. In order to achieve this, they have started focusing on innovation and intellectual property generation through their domain knowledge and transforming themselves into Innovation centers. Several multinational companies are already generating significant Intellectual Property (IP) through their Research & Development centers established in India. 3 As a measure of innovation, Indian publication activity in the field of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) grew slowly during years 1990 to 2001, gradually picked up thereafter during 2002-2006 and showed a significant rise during 2007. Fields such as communication systems, cyber security systems, network management and digital computing devices witnessed a rise in the number of Indian publications related to them. To supplement the increase in publications, Indian patenting activity has also grown slowly since year 1990, but a sudden spurt in growth was witnessed during the years 2002-2007. 1 NASSCOM 2009, Perspective 2020:Transform Business, Transform India, April 2 NASSCOM 2010, NASSCOM Strategic Review