TY - JOUR T1 - Indian medical device sector: insights from patent filing trends JF - BMJ Innovations JO - BMJ Innov SP - 167 LP - 175 DO - 10.1136/bmjinnov-2016-000131 VL - 3 IS - 3 AU - Suchita Markan AU - Yogmaya Verma Y1 - 2017/07/01 UR - http://innovations.bmj.com/content/3/3/167.abstract N2 - In this study, patent application filing trends in India for the last decade (2005–2014) were analysed to understand the medical device patent filing profile. As India is the key emerging market with huge market potential, this study was also undertaken to identify the top medical device companies filing patents in India, the niche technology domains with maximum filings, key gaps in medical device innovation profile and scope for business opportunities. It was observed that patent application filings in the medical device sector during the last 5 years (2009–2013) contributed only to 2% of the total patent applications filed, which may be attributed to nascent medical device sector and lack of Intellectual Property (IP) awareness or funding support for IP filings. The analysis shows increasing trends in medical device patent applications in India, with major share of patent applications being filed from the USA. The Indian applications in this sector contributed only to 17% of the total patent application filings in the last decade. Although foreign players dominate the medical device sector, this study indicates that though at a small scale, Indian applicants are actively filing patents in all key domains of the medical device sector. With the enabling environment being provided by the Government of India with recent policy initiatives such as Startup India, Make in India, 100% Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)and so on and support to start-ups for IP filings, the Indian medical device industry is expected to witness aggressive IP filing and innovation trends and is poised to grow exponentially targeting US$50 billion industry by 2025. ER -