IP preparedness should be viewed as a core pillar of export readiness; brands across sectors vouch for making IP a national movement
Trade Promotion Council of India
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IP preparedness should be viewed as a core pillar of export readiness; brands across sectors vouch for making IP a national movement
– TPCI hosted India IP Advantage Summit 2026- focuses on converting IP momentum into commercial advantage
7th August 2026; New Delhi: Trade Promotion Council of India (TPCI) hosted a National Summit on Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) called India IP Advantage Summit 2026- Build it. Own it. Lead it.’ The Summit was held in New Delhi on 6th August 2026. Hon’ble Justice Ms Prathiba M. Singh, Judge, High Court of Delhi, was the Chief Guest. Prof Unnat Pandit, Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks, Government of India, Shri Anand Kumar, Managing Director, STMicroelectronics, and Shri Vinamra Mishra, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, Government of India, also addressed the gathering during the plenary session.
Dr R. A. Mashelkar, who is the Chief Mentor of this Summit, in his address noted that, “First mission is to invent more. Raise national R &D spending dramatically. We are at a very low rate, 0.65% of GDP, that must go up. Industry must become the largest investor, not government alone. Today, the government share is 2/3rd and industry are 1/3rd. The proportions must be reversed as they are in the advanced world. Every advanced innovation nation has industry-led R &D.”
Further, Dr Mashelkar mentioned that, “India’s IP movement must become a national movement. Own global platforms and standards. Do not merely make products. Own AI models, semiconductors, IP, 6G standards, biotech platforms, clean energy technologies. The companies that define standards, they define markets. So, if ideas are not protected, then they become gifts to competitors. Nations that own ideas shape the global markets… while you sleep, your IP keeps earning.”
Hon’ble Ms Justice Prathiba M. Singh, Judge, High Court of Delhi, in her address, underlined, “India should no longer remain a backroom office, but a proud label of branded manufacturing.” IP has seen a paradigm shift in terms of policy and judicial remedy; today we see 15-20 cases being filed related to IPR every month in Delhi, and there are different divisions to address issues related to IPR in different courts of Delhi. For Indians to own it, we need to create more and more IP products and address the blockages, she added.
Shri Mohit Singla, Chairman TPCI, in his reaction to the summit agenda, said, “As India aggressively expands its global trade footprint through recent landmark Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), intellectual property (IP) has evolved from a legal compliance requirement into a pivotal economic leverage asset. To maximise the true potential of these FTAs and achieve our target of a $2 trillion export economy, Indian industry must transition from the economics of manufacturing to the economics of ownership—shifting our mindset from merely ‘Make in India’ to ‘Own the World’.”
Entering new international markets under preferential tariff regimes without pre-emptive IP protection leaves exporters vulnerable to trademark squatting, patent infringement, and trade secret risks. Exporters across sectors—from deep-tech, pharmaceuticals, and AI to consumer brands and agri-value chains—must adopt a ‘patent first, publish and market later’ discipline, Chairman TPCI added.
Free trade agreement (FTA) partner countries and trade blocs accounted for 40.5 percent of India’s total merchandise exports in 2025-26.
TPCI, in association with RNA, released the official report of the India IP Advantage Summit. The theme of the report is: From India to the World IP Strategy, Market Access and Risk Management for Exporters.
The report underlined that India is rapidly becoming one of the world’s important exporting economies, supported by national ambitions to reach approximately USD 2 trillion in combined goods and services exports by 2030. As Indian companies expand into overseas markets across North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America, intellectual property (IP) is no longer only a legal concern; it is increasingly a business asset that influences market access, valuation, partnerships, and long-term competitiveness.
The Patent applications filed with the Indian Patent office increased from 58,503 in FY 2020–21 to 1,43,729 in FY 2025–26—an increase of nearly 146% over five years. Filings in FY 2025–26 rose by approximately 30.2% over the 1,10,375 applications filed in the previous year. As per the latest reported data, Indian applicants accounted for 68,201 of the patent applications in 2024-25, representing approximately 62% of the total. The patent filings in the Electronics and Information Technology domain during FY 2025–26 alone registered a growth of 52%.
Prof Unnat Pandit, Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trademarks (CGPDT), speaking at the event said, “We all need to convert the knowledge into the protectable IP and the protectable IP translated into the value …we need to connect it as research to write to technology and technology to the product and product to the prosperity IP office is taking up various initiatives in the last four years. We have never thought that we would see 20% growth in trademark filings; we have also liquidated pendency in patents.”
During a session, Dr GR Raghavendra, Senior Consultant – IPR, DPIIT, said that “AI-assisted work with originality and human interference is a copyright, while the AI-generated work is not.”
Shri Vinamra Mishra, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Micro Small & Medium Enterprises, Government of India, in his address emphasised, “MSMEs are the growth drivers of the country and any end product has to be driven through MSMEs. We have to look at the downstream part of it for commercialisation and branding.” Technology transfer through IPR is making solutions to real-life problems, he added.
Shri Pravin Anand, Managing Partner, Anand & Anand, in his plenary remark said, Brands have emotions and a trademark with a soul make for a brand. India needs to create more and more brands. Citing different examples, he said that we are still into services; we need to get into products.
Anand Kumar, managing director at STMicroelectronics, highlighted the IP-driven government initiative India Semiconductor Mission 2.0, which supported this sector.
Shri Nipun Rathi, Director, Public Policy & Government Affairs boAt Lifestyle said, “Brands become very critical; apart from other patents, copyrights, etc., building up a brand and protecting it becomes the fundamental around it. With the fast-growing factory ecosystem, like now the Indian electronics industry is around 150 billion and exports being 50 billion in itself.”
Mohammad Faisal, General Manager & Head- IPR & Innovation Management, Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles Ltd. remarked, “Building a brand is easy; sustaining it is difficult. For any company, for any big-bang manufacturer, it is the responsibility of the manufacturer who is selling the end product in the market to ensure that every component going into their product has to be validated and should sustain the quality standards.”
The Summit focused on how India can convert its rising IP momentum into commercial advantage, export competitiveness and global leadership.
