Startups are filing more patents than ever but this is largely about optics getting the better of innovation

This surge may look like an innovation renaissance. But the shine wears off if one looks beyond the filing numbers. Fresh Lok Sabha data confirms what many insiders have whispered for years: a large share of Indian startup patents never reach examination stage and are not granted. Many others are quietly withdrawn or abandoned—dying far before they are born.

Between 2021 and 2025, startups filed 13,089 patent applications. Yet only 2,174 patents were granted. Barely 1 out of 6 filings survived the journey. Even more telling, nearly 500 startup patent applications were withdrawn or abandoned early, often because filers did not complete specifications, nor respond to further actions needed.

The pattern is similar for trademarks: startups filed 44,517 trademark applications, but over 1,300 were abandoned—another indicator that filings often serve more as brand optics than as part of a disciplined IP strategy.

The patent boom hides a crisis of intent: They have become a marketing tool—not a marker of genuine invention. A provisional patent application costs little and can be filed quickly to create the appearance of a breakthrough innovation. It can help a founder make a pitch to investors. But once the funding round closes, priorities may shift—and the hard work of turning provisional filings into real patents rarely happens.

This is how hundreds of patents die each year: not in the crucible of scientific scrutiny, but in the silence of procedural neglect.

Four forces drive this behaviour:

Capital first, commitment later: Startup founders often file patents to strengthen valuation narratives. Filing a provisional application is seen as a fast, affordable way to strengthen a fundraising narrative. When execution demands arise—detailed prior art searches, drafting costs, legal responses—enthusiasm fades.

Branding over technology: Trademark filings have ballooned because building a consumer-facing identity feels more urgent than investing in research. This mindset works for direct-to-consumer or internet startups, but not for a knowledge economy.

Patent office bottlenecks: India faces examiner shortages, long pendency periods and inconsistent technical expertise. Improvements have been slow.

A weak R&D culture: India’s overall R&D spend remains below 1% of GDP. Most startups lack dedicated research teams, technical drafting expertise, prior-art assessment systems and time for iterative processes, making a serious pursuit of patents difficult.

When patents become decorative rather than functional, the national innovation system suffers. Low-quality filings dilute the pool of meaningful IP. High abandonment rates signal weak follow-through. And investor-driven filing sprees create an illusion of technological progress that doesn’t translate to global competitiveness. If this goes on, India risks weakening its emerging reputation as an innovation hub.

What India must do: Shift incentives from filing to follow-through; tie government benefits—subsidies, fast-track examinations, startup credits—to patent grants, renewal or commercialization, not just filing; a single high-quality granted patent is worth more than 10 empty filings; expand examiner capacity and domain expertise.

India needs more technically specialized patent officers—particularly in AI, biotech, semiconductors, climate-tech and advanced manufacturing—to raise grant quality and accelerate pendency resolution.

Strengthen R&D within startups; offer co-funded grants, tax benefits and innovation-linked incentives for startups that create formal R&D teams, conduct original work or collaborate with research institutions; promote academia-industry co-patenting. Joint patents with IITs, agricultural universities and national labs could lift the technical standard of filings and build long-term research assets.

As our innovation culture evolves, depth must replace decoration. We need a mindset shift. Not patents as pitch-deck slides. Not filings as vanity metrics. But patents as real intellectual assets, tied to real research, real products and real progress. A patent filing boom must signal innovation that can be counted upon.

The author is a technology and social entrepreneur from IIT Kharagpur.