[Ip-health] Times of India: Indian Patent Act a role model

Tue Aug 14 08:55:02 2007

 Indian Patent Act a role model
 14 Aug 2007

 NEW DELHI: With the Madras High Court giving a thumbs up to the Patents
 Act, the Indian law could soon become a benchmark for developing and poor
 countries.

 While those like Philippines have drawn extensively from the Patents Act,
 nearly two dozen LDCs have discussed ways to provide patents only when
 there is genuine innovation so that interest of poor are protected. Unlike
 developing countries like India, the poorer members of WTO, such as
 Bangladesh, have time till 2016 to introduce a product patent regime.

 But what about Big Pharma crying foul? Officials pointed out that
 Novartis' application for Glivec was among the 8,000 mailbox applications
 that were received till December 31, 2004. Government has granted 353
 patents based on the applications, while a majority of the applications
 are being processed. Of these, 55 were granted to Indian companies, while
 the remaining 298 have been awarded to foreign players. In case of
 applications filed post-January 2005, when product patent regime set in,
 the patents office has started processing and two Indian and six foreign
 players have been awarded patents.

 "It's not that we have rejected all the applications. We recognise the
 need for granting protection to inventions. But you can't get a patent by
 changing one component. That's evergreening, which may be fine in the US
 but not in India," said an official in the department of industrial policy
 and promotion (DIPP), the government body which ensured that India's
 patent law was not turned down.

 While multinationals have expressed concerns about the Patents Act, civil
 society has welcomed the court ruling saying that the law benefits
 millions of poor Indians.

 India had amended its Patents Act to meet its commitment to provide a
 product patent regime from January 1, 2005, under WTO. Yhe department of
 industrial policy and promotion was very clear that the interest of
 millions of Indians was paramount.

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Sheila Shettle
Senior Communications Officer
M=E9decins Sans Fronti=E8res
Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines
Rue de Lausanne 78
1211 Geneva, Switzerland
+ 41.22.849.8403
+ 41.79.293.0270 (m.)
www.accessmed-msf.org
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