Can patent systems actually accelerate climate action? In his submission for the SpicyIP–Jhana Blogpost Writing Competition 2025, Abhinav Manchanda explores this question and explains how countries around the world are increasingly designing their IP regimes to support green innovation, while India’s green patent framework is still finding its footing. Abhinav is a legal researcher and writer with a keen interest in intellectual property law, climate governance, and technology regulation. His work focuses on examining how legal frameworks, particularly patent systems, can be leveraged to advance sustainable development and climate-tech innovation in India.
Green Patents and Climate Governance: What India Can Learn from Global Leaders in Climate-Tech IP
By Abhinav Manchanda
Introduction: Looking Outward Before Looking Inward
Countries that have made real progress in climate innovation share a common belief: they view intellectual property as a foundation for climate action rather than an end goal (WIPO GREEN). China’s green patent acceleration program, the European Union’s clean-tech licensing platforms, and Japan’s green transformation patent pooling mechanisms show how IP systems can be intentionally designed to support environmental goals. In contrast, India’s green patent framework is still developing. While it has some promising administrative reforms, its integration remains limited.
Data from the Indian Patent Office in 2024 shows an increase in expedited examinations for green technologies under Rule 24C. This indicates that India is heading in the right direction. However, speed alone won’t ensure climate impact. When we compare India with places that have integrated licensing, funding, procurement, and technology transfer into their patent systems, India’s approach seems fragmented. This blog explores India’s green patent landscape through a comparative lens and suggests specific reforms to turn patents into useful climate tools.
Understanding Green Patents: India’s Evolving Approach
India doesn’t legally define “green patents”, but the Indian Patent Office (IPO) has adopted administrative practice recognizes patents under the Patent Rules,2003(as amended) related to renewable energy, waste management, pollution control, sustainable agriculture, and climate adaptation as environmentally beneficial through the International patent Classification (IPC) System, particularly the WIPO “Green Inventory”. These inventions qualify for expedited examination under Rule 24C of the Patents Rules,2003 (as amended), cutting the waiting time down to around twelve to eighteen months, rather than the time for three to five years.
This approach parallels Japan’s accelerated examination system for green transformation technologies and China’s prioritized patent channels for low-carbon inventions. However, unlike China, which ties patent grants to deployment incentives and local manufacturing goals, India’s system mainly supports the grant stage.
Comparative Insight: China, The EU, And Japan
China not only speeds up the patent examination process for green patents but also incorporates patents into its industrial policy (China Green Patent Fast-Track Study). The Chinese government is directing state funds toward developing scalable technologies, while creating demand for domestically produced renewable energy products through procurement preferences. Utility companies are also able to use patents as a way to secure exclusive rights to particular technology, while also attracting investors and enabling the structured licensing of these technologies, thereby enabling commercialization. For instance, CATL’s patented LFP battery technology example: CATL has been granted multiple Green Patents for Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) batteries and battery management systems. These patents are embedded in EV and grid-scale energy storage products. State-backed funding and procurement preference reduce commercial risk. As a result, patented technologies scale rapidly into renewable energy projects.
The European Union takes a different path. Instead of focusing purely on speed, it emphasizes access and collaboration. Platforms like patent pools and standard-essential licensing for clean technologies allow various players to use foundational innovations fairly (EU Green Patent Framework). This cuts down on duplication, lowers costs, and speeds up adoption. Example: Siemens Gamesa holds a patent over wind turbine blade design and control systems. These patents are used in onshore and offshore wind turbines across the EU. Collaborative licensing and standard-setting framework enable wider access. This accelerates adoption while lowering costs and duplication.
Japan’s approach centres on coordination. Through green patent databases and voluntary licensing frameworks backed by tax incentives, Japan encourages companies to share climate technologies (Japan Green Transformation (GX) Patent Initiative) without the worry of losing their competitive edge. Example: Konica Minolta owns green patents for film mirrors and advanced solar technologies. These patents support concentrating solar power and low-light solar applications. They are shared through green patent databases and voluntary licensing. Tax incentives encourage collaboration without loss of competitive advantage.
The cited examples show that patents need to meet India’s objectives for deployment. Patent Act, 1970 already requires inventions to be worked per sections 83 and 146, along with compulsory licensing for non-working inventions per Section 84. Even though the expedited examination provisions do not impose more stringent working requirements regarding patents, stricter enforcement of patent rights could stimulate the commercialization of green technology.
The Indian Philosophy: Patents As Instruments Of Public Interest
India’s legal foundation supports this kind of integration. Sections 83 and 84 of the Patents Act, 1970 stress the need for the use of patents, fair pricing, and public benefit under Patents Act, 1970. The law doesn’t treat patent rights as absolute; it balances exclusivity with societal needs.
The philosophy of environmental technologies follows the principles of climate justice because they affect public health, access to energy, and ecological sustainability. Green Perishes were created to address the urgent issues relating to climate change and collective wellbeing; they do not fit within traditional industry categories. Delay in basic commercialisation can leave people exposed to longer periods of pollution and a greater risk of harm, so it is important for the timely provision of protection and commercialisation for preserving the right to life as provided by Article 21 of the Constitution.
While India possesses excellent capabilities for green innovation, this country is not as successful as it could be at converting green patents into usable technologies on the market. Most green technologies in India are unable to access the early-stage financing that would help them succeed; face high compliance costs for things like energy and waste management; encounter fragmented regulatory systems at both the central and state levels; and are sold into price-sensitive markets that discourage buyers from purchasing newer, higher-priced clean technologies. Public procurement mechanisms do not align with domestic green innovations consistently, while aligning patent grants with economic incentive plans and commercialization pathways occurs very infrequently. Unlike the EU or China, India doesn’t systematically tie green patents to procurement policies or industrial incentives.
Compulsory licensing remains a theoretically powerful tool but is rarely utilized. While Sections 84 and 92 under the Patents Act, 1970 provide a way to address access issues, their application in climate technologies is still unexplored. Other countries rely more on structured voluntary licensing with support from fiscal incentives, a strategy that India has yet to adopt.
Suggestions: Building A Mature Green Patent Ecosystem
The country must streamline its disparate green patent incentives by sharing them through the creation of a comprehensive green patent strategy. One way to accomplish is through the establishment of an integrated Green Technology Exchange through the office of the Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) and the IP India Portal, where innovative and valued green technologies are listed along with their respective patent classifications found in defined green IPC categories, and the information regarding the licensing terms and the working status of such patents and the licensees under Section 146 of the Patents Act; this will create transparency and therefore reduce information gaps, as well as connect innovators with investors and the appropriate industries to provide a more efficient market system for bringing these products to market.
Additionally, the links between the expedited examination process under Rule 24C and demand side support, as well as the potential changes in the Government’s Procurement Guidelines under the General Financial Rules (GFR) to be used to define a margin of preference for green technologies that are developed and found domestically to increase the demand for them to further decrease market uncertainty and thus increase private investment.
Also, enforcing a system of voluntary licensing models can be enhanced through the implementation of tax incentives for patent holders that license their products under fair and reasonable licensing agreements, as well as to align palleted sectors and the global objectives such as the Government’s Production Linked Incentives (PLI) program and the national Renewable Energy Mission will also further embed green innovation goals into the country’s various industrial policies through these programs.
The application of compulsory licensing however, as established in Section 84 of the Patents Act must continue to be maintained as a public policy measure to provide for the protection of public interest, and as a result, guidelines for the application of such measures need to be more transparent to ensure that all parties involved in the use of compulsory licensing maintain reasonable and logical assumptions to maintain their expectations
Conclusion: From Ambition To Architecture
India’s green patent reforms show true intent and align with environmental goals in its constitution. However, when compared to global leaders, the framework still lacks coherence. Speed, incentives, access, and deployment need to operate as part of a unified system, not as disconnected efforts.
If India learns from best practices linking patents to procurement, promoting collaborative licensing, and investing in commercialization pathways, it can turn green patents into vital tools for climate resilience. The legal framework already allows for this change. What is needed now is the political and institutional will to treat intellectual property as a dynamic infrastructure for climate action.