Topic-Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests Effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India’s interests.
4) The Draft Patents Rules, released by the Ministry of Commerce undermine safeguards against frivolous patents. Analyze.(250 words)
Why this question
India is still a technology importing nation by large ,and has also resisted various moves of the developed countries to make its patent laws less strict. In this context it is essential to discuss how the draft patent rules undermine safeguards against frivolous patents.
Directive word
Analyze-here we have to examine methodically the structure or nature of the topic by separating it into component parts, and present them as a whole in a summary.
Key demand of the question.
The question wants us to look deeper into the draft CRZ rules released by the ministry of Commerce and bring out how they undermine safeguards placed against frivolous patents.
Structure of the answer
Introduction– write a few introductory lines about the recent changes being mulled over by the government.
Body-
Discuss the salient provisions of the bill and how they affect safeguards against frivolous patents. E.g
- It proposes a new mechanism which will expedite decisions on patent applications.
- This proposed fast-track process seems to come with various other compromises on the functioning of India’s patent architecture and for protecting access to medicines.
- The monopoly of patents is often justified as an incentive to promote R&D. But in practice, patents are used to control competition and give fewer options to consumers. Towards this purpose, big corporations are known for obtaining multiple patents claiming minor changes on the same technology or molecule.
- This practice of creating patent-fences adversely impacts the industrial and technological development of countries like India, by preventing their firms from catching up with the latest technology.
- As a technology-dependent country, India’s patents Act discourages patenting frivolous inventions and excludes patenting software, plants, animals or their parts and known chemical molecules.
- The proposed changes for fast-track examination say that if a patent is granted in a foreign patent office, then the applicant can apply for fast-tracking of the same application in India, provided that there is a bilateral agreement between the Indian Patent Office and the concerned foreign patent office.
- This may lead to the “harmonisation” of Indian patentability criteria with foreign countries like US, Japan.
- It can also lead to the granting of patents prohibited under the Indian Patents Act, such as a patent on software or a known molecule. In other words, the stringent standards for granting patents set by parliament in the Act would be ignored in practice etc.
Conclusion– based on your discussion, form a fair and a balanced conclusion on the given issue.
