Indian Patent Regime vs. US norms

By Educrat IAS Academy | | 0 comment | 15 June, 2022 | 0

US has decided to retain India on its Priority Watch List along with six other countries —Argentina, Chile, China, Indonesia, Russia and Venezuela.

Indian Patent Regime:

Indian patents are governed by the Indian Patent Act of 1970.
India became a party to the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement following its membership to the World Trade Organisation on January 1, 1995.
An interesting point is that the original Indian Patents Act did not grant patent protection to pharmaceutical products to ensure that medicines were available at a low price.
Patent protection of pharmaceuticals were re-introduced after the 2005 amendment to comply with TRIPS.
India is also a signatory to several IPR related conventions, including the Berne Convention, which governs copyright.
It is signatory to the Budapest Treaty, the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, and the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), all of which govern various patent-related matters.

One of the main points of contention between India and the U.S. has been Article 3(d) of the Indian Patent Act
Section 3 deals with what does not qualify as an invention under the Act, and Section 3(d) in particular excludes the mere discovery of a new form of a known substance.
Section 3(d) prevents the mere discovery of any new property or new use for a known substance from being patented as an invention unless it enhances the efficacy of the substance repetitive.
This prevents, what is known as “Evergreening” of patents.
According to the Committee’s report, Section 3(d) allows for “generic competition by patenting only novel and genuine inventions.”

The Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health was adopted on November 14, 2021, by the WTO member states.
This declaration recognises the gravity of public health problems affecting developing and least developed nations.
Compulsory licences can be invoked by a state in public interest, allowing companies apart from the patent owner to produce a patented product without consent.
It indicated that India should resolve its differences with the US regarding the disqualification of incremental inventions through bilateral dialogue.