GS Paper-2
Syllabus: Issues related to the development of the social sector involving health, laws related to the social sector etc.
Context:
Economic Advisory Council (EAC) to the Prime Minister has recommended the period within which patent applications are open to challenge by the public be restricted to a mere six months from the date of its publication.
Background: In 2005, lawmakers amended the Indian patent law to ensure that the Indian patent office did not grant monopolies on old science or for compounds already in the public domain.
- This prevented drug corporations from indulging in “evergreening”, a common abusive patenting practice aimed at obtaining separate patent monopolies relating to the same medicine
New Recommendations:
- Reduction in public discourse period: The new recommendation reduces the period within which patent applications can be challenged to six months.
Concerns
- Will dilute the pre-grant opposition system: Since the Indian Patent Offices receive an average of 50,000 patent applications a year, examiners often miss critical information about the patent application under consideration.
- A recent study on pharmaceutical patent grants in India revealed that 7 out of 10 patents are granted in error by the Indian Patent Office.
- A robust pre-grant opposition system provides an additional administrative layer of scrutiny that prevents the grant of frivolous patents through third parties’ participation in the review process.
- Pressure from Big- pharma companies: The commerce ministry, responsible for administering the patents act, is under pressure to restrict pre-grant patent oppositions, hence the recommendation.
| Evergreening of Patent:
● It is a corporate, legal, business, and technological strategy for extending/elongating the term of a granted patent in a jurisdiction that is about to expire, in order to retain royalties from them, by taking out new patents. ● Section 3(d) of the Indian Patent Act 1970 (amended in 2005) does not allow patents to be granted to inventions involving new forms of a known substance unless it differs significantly in properties with regard to efficacy. Compulsory Licencing (CL): ● CL is the grant of permission by the government to entities to use, manufacture, import or sell a patented invention without the patent owner’s consent. Patents Act in India deals with CL. ● CL is permitted under the WTO’s TRIPS (IPR) Agreement provided conditions such as ‘national emergencies, other circumstances of extreme urgency and anti-competitive practices’ are fulfilled. |
Insta Link:
Questions for practice:
Q. Consider the following statements:
- Evergreening is the grant of permission by the government to entities to use, manufacture, import or sell a patented invention without the patent owner’s consent.
- Compulsory licensing is a strategy for extending/elongating the term of a granted patent in a jurisdiction that is about to expire, in order to retain royalties from them, by taking out new patents.
Which of the statements given above is/are not correct?
a. 1 only
b. 2 only
c. Both 1 and 2
d. Neither 1 nor 2
Ans: (c)
