Fresh Left note on patents

After registering their protest over the government taking the Ordinance route to amend the Patents Act, the Left parties are now preparing to present their next note to the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government on the issue by mid January.

The note will once again ask for the Ordinance to be referred to a parliamentary standing committee or a joint select committee for review, as the Left contends that there has been inadequate discussion on the amendment.

Left leaders have been saying there has been a sea of difference in the global perception of the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement since the World Trade Organisation met at Seattle.

According to a Left patents expert, it is important that the government "push the envelope as much as possible to use the flexibility in the TRIPS regime to the benefit of the Indian pharmaceutical industry".

He said the Left would take up the issue with the government over what qualified "new use" in their next note.

According to him, the Ordinance introduced ambiguities to what constituted "new use" through the introduction of the word "mere", which he said appeared "innocuous" but in fact left the door open to duplication of patents.

He further said the government had diluted the pre-grant opposition clause in the Ordinance, which was a part of the original Indian Patents Act of 1970.

The 2002 amendment to the Patents Act had strengthened the pre-grant clause by introducing sub-clauses relating to the origin of biological material and indigenous use, he said.

But the present amendment, according to him, "whittles down" the pre-grant clause by lobbing off large parts of it and making it a part of the post-grant opposition framework.

He said post-grant opposition would make it much harder for patents to be contested as it was the government and not the patents applicant who would be the respondent in this case.

Other issues to be taken up by the Left will also include a comprehensive definition of "invention", compulsory licensing and parallel exports.

Taking the Left parties' campaign further, a group of Left trade unions, students' organisations and Left-leaning intellectuals today announced the formation of a joint action committee against the third amendment to the Patents Act.

They charged the government with "obfuscating the whole issue" and attempting to "preclude transparent deliberations on the issue involved" by bringing up the "bogey of January 1, 2005," the deadline for the implementation of the product patents regime under the TRIPS agreement.