[A2k] India´s patent flip-flops at WIPO

[prabhu ram]

>Businessworld India

The patent flip-flops

Latha Jishnu


Does India know what its stand on the internationalharmonisation of
patent rules is? That's what the world is asking as Delhi does some
amazing flip-flops at World Intellectual Property Organization (Wipo),
the apex global organisation for intellectual property (IP) issues.

India has told a bemused Wipo in a note verbale that it does not
support the recommendations made by an informal consultative meeting
of the organisation in Casablanca in February. That session had been
chaired by R.A. Mashelkar, director-general, Council of Scientific &
Industrial Research. A globally reputed scientist and expert on IP, he
was India's representative. (See 'The Next Battle Ground', BW, 11
April).

The note clarified that there is no change in India's "long-standing
position" on the issues being addressed at Wipo. That is, India is
firmly with the Group of Friends of Development (Group), a 14-nation
bloc in Wipo led by Argentina and Brazil, which is pushing for a more
nuanced approach to standardisation of patents. The Group wants to
drive Wipo activities towards development-oriented results. It has
been critical of the Casablanca resolution which had listed upward
harmonisation of patent laws as a priority.

The flip-flops come at a critical time. On 13 April, Wipo wound up an
intergovernmental meeting where the simmering differences between the
US and its allies, and the Group almost spilled over. Three wearying
days of closed-door meetings, mostly between small groups, proved
inconclusive. Wipo agreed that the talks on the development agenda
will be continued in June and July. Even Singapore, which is locked
into a tight IP protection regime with the US through its
'state-of-the-art' free trade agreement, said on 11 April that IP
protection cannot be a one-size-fits-all regime.

But India, earlier seen as a key negotiator on this issue, is now
being viewed with an increasing degree of suspicion - by both the
allies and the opposition. Although Indian officials have thrown their
weight behind the Group, it is still not part of it. Worse, its stand
changes within weeks.

The question that is being asked is: who is driving India's policy on
IP and the Wipo agenda? The note verbale, embarrassingly for Delhi,
implies Mashelkar chaired the Casablanca meeting in his personal
capacity. Officials here say as secretary, Department of Scientific
and Industrial Research, he would not have attended the meeting
without clearance from science & technology (S&T) minister Kapil
Sibal. Mashelkar did not respond to queries.

But why should the S&T ministry be involved in Wipo talks?
Traditionally, IP has been the purview of the HRD ministry and its
officials attend the sessions fairly regularly. But HRD minister Arjun
Singh is not known to be engaged with the issue of IP rights.

However, the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion of the
commerce ministry, part of the inter-ministerial group formulating
policy on IP, is known to favour the US line on upward harmonisation
and commerce ministry officials have sometimes found themselves at
loggerheads with India's declared position on IP rights. In December
2003, joint secretary A.E. Ahmed started a bureaucratic storm because
of his reluctance to oppose a US move to take the Patent Cooperation
Treaty into substantive patent issues. He was moved out, but not
before raising a question mark over India's position.

Evidently, some bureaucrats, with the tacit support of their
ministers, have been pushing individual agendas in Wipo. Till there is
a cohesive line, there could be more embarrassments.



--
Prabhu Ram,
Max-Planck-Institut for Intellectual Property, Competition and Tax Law,
MarstallPlatz 1,
80539 Munich
GERMANY

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