Few people in this country understand how seriously India’s development as those of other Third World countries would be impacted by a stifling intellectual property regime. “The WIPO knife edge” (November 26) highlights the problem that the South is facing in different forums from the industrialised countries. In WIPO, the Triad (comprising the US, European Union and Japan) have been trying for quite some time to push TRIPS-plus conditions of patent protection. This is the current arena, although these countries are also seeking higher levels of IP protection in bilateral trade agreements also.
That is why Indian bureaucrats should be extremely cautious during negotiations in international organisations and more so when free trade agreements are being negotiated. Of special concern is the FTA with EU which will have serious consequences for our generics industry because of the IPR regime that it is seeking.
It is a sad fact that Indian negotiators are quite often won over with plum posts in the very organisations that they are negotiating. This happened when the Uruguay round of negotiations was being conducted and officials were accommodated immediately afterwards in the WTO. The trend appears to be repeating itself in the WIPO, too.
Naresh K Jha, on email