Pharmaceutical majors seem to be the first ones to queue up for risk cover, to protect themselves against intangible risks in the form of lawsuits for violation of patents and intellectual property rights (IPR).
Indian information technology companies are also not far behind either as India approaches closer to the 2005 d-day in the global patent regime.
Greater international exposure especially to more litigious countries such as the US has raised apprehensions among some of the leading corporate entities. Many Indian companies fear repercussions of patent infringement and the damage that would be caused to their reputation and stock prices following product recall.
Whatever comes out of a patent office can impact companies and even service industries across the globe.
Take the examples of Amazon.com, British Telecommunications, Priceline.-com, Open Market, DoubleClick, which are among some of the US companies sending shock waves through the online business community, as they assert ownership over core e-commerce methods.
Said a patent attorney,
