HBO’s Silicon Valley It depicts a group of nerds who write algorithms for fictional startups, Pied Piper, and video compression software programs. As the show progresses, one of the plots involves efforts from the struggled Pied Piper, with the efforts of major tech giant Furi. This happens because the founder of Pied Piper handed it over without intellectual property protection. “Pied Piper IP” refers to intellectual property rights related to the Pied Piper algorithm.
If you’re wondering why a subplot revolving around “Pied Piper IP” is the most important aspect of the show, it’s because IP is the most valuable asset for tech companies and startups. Perhaps it’s “overprotection” of intellectual property, as Apple and Nintendo play a key role in keeping these companies ahead of the curve. However, no one has spoken about the original idea or the ways India Inc lacks in creating IPs.
This is a discussion after Chinese small startup DeepSeek created a new way to build AI models with less money, bringing the “AHA” moment to make AI adoption mainstream It should have been a topic. Despite pure resources and talent, there is freedom to be talented. In response, India announced plans to develop its own GPU within three to five years and develop a basic AI model within ten months. It feels like a rush and movement, but the reality on the ground remains the same.
Check out India’s biggest tech companies. They are all “services” companies like Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, Wipro, and more, and have nothing to do with creating IPs. They basically get clients and handle the maintenance work primarily and do their coding at a cheaper cost. They don’t develop software or platforms to sell to consumers or businesses. When you ask someone who works at TCS, they will tell you the difference between working for a service company and a product company like Google. The lie that TCS and Infosys are software companies has been on sale for years. But in reality, US tech companies are leading software such as Microsoft, Oracle, Salesforce, Adobe, Google and more. Indian service companies may create jobs, but they will not promote innovation and they certainly do not position India as a technological powerhouse.
It all comes down to intellectual property, and India certainly isn’t an IP-based economy. Intellectual property is the most highly valued tech companies or startups can have. It’s like having a real estate paper that proves who owns the land. IP can use your technology to protect you from your competitors, give you competitiveness, secure funds, and even prevent you from being bought by large companies.
India may manufacture iPhones, but no local companies design and sell smartphones. (Image credit: Anuj Bhatia/Indian Express)
For example, consider an Apple iPhone. iPhone designs, software, product names, concepts, patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets all fall under IP. Some may say that the iPhone is a smartphone, but Apple never calls it an iPhone a smartphone. The reason is…well, the iPhone is a platform. This means that Apple has exclusive rights to the platform, allowing you to extend it, create new products, develop solutions, tweak software algorithms, and change manufacturing processes at any time. Therefore, Apple protects its intellectual property. That’s why Kate Adams, the company’s top lawyer, Apple’s general advisor, won $27.2 million in compensation last year.
Similarly, Android is a trademark of Google, which is how the company manages the Smartphone market to be the owner of the Android and Play Store. Apple uses iOS to follow closed models, but Google offers Android for free to the company, but to use the suite of “Google Mobile Services” suites, including the Google Play Store You will be charged a license fee. Nintendo is also sensitive to IPs, including characters, franchises, game titles, logos and designs related to video games such as Mario, Zelda, Pokemon, and Animal Crossing.
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Google dominates online search through the Chrome browser and the Android smartphone operating system. (Image credit: Anuj Bhatia/Indian Express)
The point is that, without intellectual property, it is a patent (for example, Apple filed 5,000 patents for the technology that helped develop the Vision Pro headset) and a mechanism to protect IP. A foundation based on original ideas and creativity. And these are areas India lacks in both ways. This is why I’ve never seen AI labs like Openai in Bengaluru, or products like the iPhone that emerge from India. All of this is because we have never tried to develop technology or take risks. Instead, we always talk about the size of the market and why tech companies are setting up stores in India.
Of course, major tech companies want to come to India. a) access to a large talent pool, and b) there is little competition from local tech companies. However, the same tech companies face a lot of competition in China, where they were forbidden from doing business and often failed to compete with local businesses. However, China itself has created its own technology ecosystem (taking Wechat, Tiktok and abandoning the way Huawei ultimately dumped the Android mobile operating system for its own Harmonos). It challenges its economic and geopolitical order.
India still couldn’t do that, but there has been some progress in the fintech sector. Until you own a platform that is located on the hardware side, software, or in the cloud and build an ecosystem, tech companies and startups cannot transform into tech giants. India Inc. may be keen to work with US tech giants (and that has been the case for many years), but that will not change India’s position in the tech world. A high-tech company (or country) does not want to share its trade secrets with others.
Huawei’s new Harmonyos Next operating system does not rely on Google’s Android services and does not run Android apps. (Image credit: Anuj Bhatia/Indian Express)
Most importantly, many high-tech companies are most needed to train these AI models, so they may be fighting over data from India and willing to pay with billions of dollars of investment. Some prices may seem small. So India needs to take a careful approach and completely rethink how to create technology and build a globally capable platform. You need to think of ways to come up with the next big alternative to your smartphone. There’s no need to take shortcuts of white hidden cheap products from China and market them as our own.
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You need to step up and create rivals on YouTube, Instagram and WhatsApp, and develop technology-friendly policies that will help startups take huge risks and build their technology. However, this also requires long-term investment and patience. The current system encourages many Indian founders to pursue careful growth, pursue early exits, and move abroad to work for US tech companies. The role of regulators is also essential to keeping major tech companies from curbing competition.
Perhaps the problem with India is not the lack of talent and taxes that attract a lot of attention on social media, but the lack of fresh ideas and ambition.
