Galgotias University: 2,297 patents filed, just 1% granted; with 63%, IITs far ahead of private institutes

The recent controversy over the Galgotias University, a private university in the National Capital Region (NCR), passing off an off-the-shelf robotic dog named ‘Orion’ at the AI Impact Summit 2026 as its own creation, has once again brought the research and development (R&D) credentials of the country’s private universities under scrutiny.

Even as the university admitted and apologised for the misleading claim, it sought to burnish its commitment to innovation, especially in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), by boasting of a supposed Rs 350 crore investment in the emerging discipline. However, the Galgotias and other private universities have so far only modest achievements to show when it comes to creating original technologies and products, according to the government data.

The Greater Noida university, since it was established in 2011, has been prolific in filing for the intellectual property rights (IPR) for the various R&D projects on its campus, publishing 2,297 patents during its short existence, according to the publicly-available data on the Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trademarks website. This makes it one of the most prolific institutes, academic or otherwise, in making IPR claims. This figure is higher than even the older Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) – IIT Bombay, IIT Madras and IIT Kanpur – which have 1,646, 1,782 and 939 patent applications to their name, respectively.

However, only about one percent – 24 to be precise – of the Galgotias University’s applications have resulted in patents being granted.

R&D: Private-university success rate far behind IITs’

The publication and grant of patents is a key indicator of an educational institute or an individual’s research prowess. The quantum and impact of publications in research journals and in-house incubation of start-ups are some of the other metrics used to assess the institutes’ research and innovation potential. The ranking agencies usually deploy these parameters to grade universities and colleges.

What is the Galgotias University controversy? It tried to pass off the robotic dog ‘Orion’ as its own creation at the AI Summit 2026

Galgotia University’s IPR success rate is at par with other private universities in the country, which dominate the list of organisations filing patents with the central government. For instance, of 7,500-odd applications by a private university in Punjab’s Phagwara, perhaps the highest in the country, only 219 (3%) were granted patents. The success rate of two other private universities with high volume of applications, located in Chennai and Bengaluru, is less than 1%, while another private institute in Bhubaneshwar recorded relatively higher – almost 6% – grants.

By comparison, IITs register an impressive 63% publication to grant conversion rate, despite filing fewer applications. The premier institutes have cumulatively published 10,660 patents, fetching IPR for 6,675 of them.

Despite the low patent conversion rate, Galgotias University managed to figure in the 11-50 ranking band in the innovation category in the latest edition of the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF). The first ten positions are occupied by various IITs, Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and Anna University. The private university also made it to the universities category in the 101-150 ranking band.

Note: The patent publication and grant data have been searched and collated using the commonly used name and spelling of the institutes. The actual figures may vary slightly due to the spelling variations in the patent application entries on the IPR portal.