India not bound by patents pact: Left

The Left parties have said the Indian government is not bound to meet the January 1, 2005, deadline to amend the patents law in the country to align it with the Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement. The parties believe that there has been insufficient "public discussion" on the issue.

"We were obligated to meet the first deadline in 1995, it was only delivered in 1999. What's the need for rushing through," CPM Politburo Member SR Pillai asked.

At the meeting of the Left parties on October 27, CPI General Secretary AB Bardhan had said the Patents Amendment Bill would need further debate and the Left would present its views to the government at the next coordination meeting with the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.

The Left has demanded that the Bill be referred to a standing committee before the final set of amendments are put in place.

The amendments to the Bill, pushed through in 1999 and 2001 by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government with the support of the Congress, has consistently been opposed by the Left, which has even sought their revision.

The Left has two sets of arguments against the Bill in its present form. First, it believes the amendments will help multinational companies. A ban on reverse engineering of pharmaceutical products will lead to monopoly pricing and make drugs unaffordable for the common man, according to the Left.

The other argument, which is more technical, has to do with the Left's disagreement on the scope of patentabilty as defined in the Act at present and the working of patents.

According to Pillai, the problem area is Section 2 (1) of the Act, which describes an invention as "an inventive step capable of industrial activity".

The Left wants the government to introduce a new clause or introduce a clarification in stressing that this definition should be underlined by it being a "new or novel invention" and not just any invention.