The State of Indian University Patents: Grant, Lapse and Renewal Rates

Data Explainer · University Patents

Updated for 2026 · Claw Editorial

A university can spend lakhs getting a patent granted and then lose it because nobody paid a small renewal fee on time. This page explains how grant, lapse and renewal rates for Indian university and technology transfer office (TTO) patents are measured, what the public record in InPASS can tell you, and how to check your own portfolio. It was last verified in October 2026.

01Why university patents lapse

University patents lapse mostly because of process, not because the invention failed. A patent that nobody owns in practice is easy to forget.

Ownership is spread out

A university patent is filed by a professor or a lab, owned by the institution, and paid for from a research or admin budget. When the inventor moves, retires or loses interest, the renewal reminder often has no clear owner.

Value is unclear for years

Many university inventions are early stage. A TTO may not find a licensee for five or more years. Each year the renewal fee looks like a cost with no return, so the easy choice is to let the patent go.

Deadlines are quiet

Renewal fees fall due every year from the third year after the date of filing, and the patent term is 20 years from filing. Nothing loud happens when a date is missed. The register simply shows the patent as ceased.

A lapsed university patent is usually a missed date, not a failed invention.

02Grant, lapse and renewal: the terms

Three plain terms explain most of the data you will see in any university patent report.

• Grant rate: the share of filed applications that end in a granted patent. It needs a cut-off year, because recent filings are still pending and make the rate look low.
• Lapse: a granted patent that stops being in force because the renewal fee was not paid in time. IP India shows this as ceased.
• Renewal rate: the share of granted patents still in force at a given age, for example at year 5 or year 10.

Do not mix these up. A high lapse figure on a small, old sample can sit beside a healthy grant rate on recent filings. Always ask for the sample size (N) and the date the data was pulled.

03What the data says, and what it does not

The honest answer today is that India has research papers on university patents, but no single, regularly updated public report that gives one agreed lapse rate for all higher education institutions (HEIs).

Published academic studies of Indian patents show that a large share of patents are not renewed even though the fees are small, and that only about a third are kept alive to year 10 across all Indian patents, not only university ones.

Studies of Indian universities also report that HEIs hold a large share of granted patents, and that few of those are worked or licensed. The details vary by study, institution list and year.

The figure this page cannot give you yet

The number most readers want is the percentage of HEI patents lapsed for non-renewal, across N institutions, from InPASS, on a stated date. We have not published that number here because we could not confirm it from a primary source in this review. We would rather leave it out than print a figure that may not hold up.

The next section shows how to produce this figure yourself from the official register.

04How to measure lapse from InPASS

You can measure lapse for your own institution, or for a group of peers, using InPASS, the public patent search of the Indian Patent Office.

1. Fix the list of institutions. Use exact applicant names and note spelling variants, for example "Indian Institute of Technology" and "IIT". This is where most counting errors start.
2. Fix the filing years. Choose a window, for example 2010 to 2018, so that most applications have had time to be decided.
3. Count applications, then grants. Grant rate is granted divided by filed in that window.
4. Check the status of each grant. Note which are in force and which show as ceased for non-payment of renewal fees.
5. Record N and the date. Lapse rate is ceased grants divided by all grants in the window. State N and the pull date next to the number, every time.

Official source for the register: IP India public search (InPASS).

05What to do about lapsed patents

A lapsed patent is not always lost. The Patents Act allows restoration in some cases, within a limited window.

Under Section 60, a patent that ceased for non-payment can be restored if the application is made within 18 months of the date it ceased, and the delay was unintentional. The Controller decides, and others may oppose. The full process is in our guide on patent restoration under Section 60.

For a TTO, three habits cut lapses more than any tool:

• Keep one named owner for each patent family, not each inventor.
• Review the portfolio once a year, and decide keep, license or drop on purpose.
• Check whether your institution qualifies for reduced official fees as an educational institution.

06Tools for TTOs

Different tools solve different parts of the job, and no one tool is best at all of them.

• TTO lifecycle management (disclosures, licences, royalties): specialist products such as Wellspring and Inteum are built for this and go deeper than a general IP tool.
• Global docketing and annuities: Anaqua, Clarivate and Dennemeyer lead for multi-country portfolios.
• High-volume docketing for IP firms: Iolite and JSK are built for that scale.
• AI prior-art search: PatSnap, Questel and IPRally are stronger here.

Prices for most of these are on quote. Check each vendor's own page and confirm GST status before you compare. For a wider look at options, see CubicTree alternatives.

07Where Claw fits

Claw is an all-in-one legaltech platform for Indian advocates, law firms, and corporate legal teams, combining AI-based case search, an AI legal assistant (Legal GPT), case management, and compliance automation across all Indian courts and tribunals.

When a lapsed patent turns into a dispute, over restoration, ownership or infringement, the fight moves into court. Claw lets you research how courts have decided similar patent matters across 30 crore+ judgments, with the Supreme Court covered from 1950 and High Courts from 1990, and track any live matter by party name, with results in under 5 seconds across 9,102 courts, benches and forums, including the cases, orders and hearings as they move. Claw does not use customer documents to train AI models.

Create a FREE Claw account to research patent decisions and track a matter by party name across Indian courts. To search the wider body of law, see case search across Indian courts.

08Sources and further reading

• IP India, InPASS public search: iprsearch.ipindia.gov.in
• Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks: ipindia.gov.in
• WIPO: wipo.int
• Claw: clawlaw.in

Last verified October 2026. Statute sections and fee details should be confirmed on the official IP India pages before you rely on them.

09Frequently asked questions