Universities rush to file patents for rankings, few acquire commercial value

Universities rush to file patents for rankings, few acquire commercial value 

Experts urge dismantling siloed research ecosystem to accelerate lab-tomarket transition of technologies 

Divyansh.Kumar@timesofindia.com 12.01.2026

Indian universities are producing an impressive volume of patents, yet most innovations never leave the labs to be used as a valuable product in market or industry. Form-27 (statement of working) submitted at the Indian Patent Office (IPO) has noticed a dip in the commercially viable patents, 16,000 to just 560 in the past five years. Experts highlight that roughly 96% of patents filed have been deemed commercially unviable. 

Indian universities file patents that look remarkable on paper but do not find value in the industry. For education leaders, policymakers, and researchers, the number of patents filed are solely for getting a place in international and Indian ranking frameworks. “A patent is often treated as the finish line, while it is only a milestone in a long journey of engineering, validation, manufacturability, standards, user behaviour, and cost,” says Prof V Ramgopal Rao, group vicechancellor, BITS Pilani and former director, IIT Delhi. The problem is not solely related to restricted funding but largely associated with identifying the market value. “We have built an academic system that celebrates novelty on paper, but does not equally reward the hard, iterative, sometimes messy work of translation,”he says. 

Globally, only about 5-10% of patents are successfully commercialised. At Indian campuses the picture is hardly better. NIT Rourkela (NIT-R), which secured 13th position in the Engineering category in 2025 NIRF rankings, reports a conversion rate of just 1015%, meaning roughly nine out of every ten campus patents do not reach the market. Prof Swadesh Kumar Pratihar, dean  (Sponsored Research), NIT-R, cites a lack of translational research as the primary reason. “The lack of translational research at an institute forces the patent to become just a novel idea or a proof-of-concept and doesn’t contain the commercialisation blueprint. To turn that idea into a technology, we need to integrate multiple disciplines,” adds Prof Pratihar. There is a surge in patent filings from private universities, which sometimes exceeds the combined output of all IITs. 

The disconnect between filings and utility, experts argue, is driven by structural and cultural factors. One reason is incentive design. Rankings and accreditation frameworks such as NIRF and NAAC currently reward patent counts and similar outputs — a system that some HEIs appear to exploit. “NIRF has a specific category for ‘Innovation’ where patents carry a much higher weightage. This creates a powerful incentive for universities to file as many patents as possible to climb the rankings, rather than focusing on impactful, marketable projects,” says Achal Agrawal, data scientist and founder, Indian Research Watch. Highlighting the absurdity of the current surge in patent filings, Agrawal adds, “Last year, close to one lakh patents were approved, up from 30,000 in previous years.” Valley of Death The core of the crisis lies in the ‘finish line’ mentality. Many HEIs treat a patent grant as the end of the journey, rewarding faculty for the filing while ignoring the hard, iterative engineering required to turn IP into a product. Most Indian academic research stalls at Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 3 or 4 (Proof of Concept). Industry, however, only begins to take interest at TRL 7 or 8 (Operational Demonstration). This ‘Valley of Death’ is where inventions go to die given the territorial nature of Indian labs. 

“Traditionally, research in India has been siloed. Successful commercialisation of a patent requires to bring together different minds. The approach of integrating engineering, business, and design needs to be institutionalised in our HEIs,” adds Prof Pratihar. NIT-R is attempting to break that mould with a centralised equipment booking system giving first-year students and senior researchers equal access to high-end tools. Prof Rao warns that celebration of filings without follow-through turns patents into paperwork rather than pathways. “What is missing is milestone-linked translational funding that pays for iteration, testing, product engineering, and field pilots, not just the first prototype,” he adds. Agrawal stresses that India loses many of its brightest researchers to industry because academic salaries and conditions for PhDs remain uncompetitive. “Companies prefer their own employees’ research because they perceive a skill gap in academic labs,” he says, adding, “In Europe, companies often fund PhDs directly, creating immediate bridges between lab and market. Such models are worth emulation.