'No delay in patents law'

The country will have a new patent regime by January 1, 2005, which will be compliant with the provisions of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). This would make India competitive and accelerate economic growth, Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal said today.

"A special patent law will be in place by January 1, which will address the confusion in various sectors," Sibal said on the sidelines of a seminar on in-house research and development in industry, organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) and the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).

"There is a need for progressive patent laws and we must design them to give ourselves a good intellectual property rights regime. Also, the government should protect public interest," he said.

He, however, did not disclose when the draft Bill would be sent to a parliamentary standing committee for evaluation in line with the Left's demands.

Sibal said India could not become a world economic power unless investments were made in human resource development. There was also a need for manpower planning for intellectual property rights protection.

"Intellectual property rights must be made a compulsory subject in college law courses and in universities," he said, adding a number of patent training institutes would have to be set up.

Pointing out the need for public-private partnership, he said the Indian pharmaceutical industry must pursue basic research for patent-worthy inventions involving new molecules. It would have to forge partnerships with national laboratories, he said.

The minister said the judicial system should be exposed to new developments in the field of intellectual property rights. "The delay in courts is causing great frustration to the patentee and the judicial system should be sensitive towards this," he said.

The minister also distributed awards to the Indian Oil Corporation, Jubilant Organosys, High Energy Batteries, Rajasthan Electronics and Instruments and Goodlass Nerolac for outstanding in-house R&D achievements.