The Hindu Business Line : Patent regime: Many issues need attention, say experts

Mr Kapil Sibal (right), Minister for Science and Technology, and Dr R.A. Mashelkar, Director General, CSIR, at a conference in the Capital on Tuesday. Also seen is Prof. V.S. Ramamurthy, Secretary, Department of Science and Technology. — Ramesh Sharma

New Delhi , Nov. 16

EVEN as the country readies for the WTO-compliant product patent regime schedules to start from January 1, 2005 experts have said that many issues including data protection and quality of patents would need to be attended to even after the Third Patent (Amendment) Bill is passed by Parliament. The Government had earlier said that the Bill would be introduced in Parliament this winter session.

"A new legal regime will soon be in place but more amendments will come thereafter. Many new situations will arise from now on. We can expect more litigations given the fact that patent awareness is very low in the country," said Dr K.V. Swaminathan, Chairman of Waterfalls Institute of Technology Transfer (WITT), at a conference organised by FICCI and the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) to discuss various issues in the Indian IPR regime.

WITT is an institute that works in the area of technology adoption, upgradation and transfer.

"We would require new policy directions covering patent administration for quality control of patent grants and promoting commercialisation," he added.

As on February 2004, although Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), with 504 US patents, emerged as the Indian organisation with largest number of patents, it also accounted for 85 per cent of non-working Indian patents, Dr Swaminathan said.

The other organisations with sizable number of US patents are Ranbaxy (50), Dr Reddy's Labs (37), Dabur (24), IOC (19), National Institute of Immunology (13) and Panacea Biotec (12).

Mr C.D. Mayee, Agriculture Commissioner, called for "immediate attention to data protection, particularly in the area of agrochemicals and agricultural biotechnology".

Meanwhile, Mr Rajeev Ranjan, Director, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), said that the Patent (Amendment) would provide for patenting "embedded software. We are touching IT in the 3rd Amendment for patenting of embedded software."

Earlier during the day, talking about the need to make industry more aware of patents and the impact of the new regulations, the Minister of State for Science and Technology, Mr Kapil Sibal, called for the need to fully understand the implications of the patents granted.

"IPR must be made a compulsory subject in college law courses and in Universities. Our graduates emerging from the engineering and technology streams have no idea about IPR, yet these young people will battle in the emerging wars in the knowledge market."

Mr Sibal also said that educational institutions, national laboratories and industrial R&D laboratories need to gear up to generate IPs that are worth protecting.

"We will have to invest liberally to enhance the skills and knowledge base of scientists through structured in-house and external professional training programmes, interpreting and analysing the techno-legal and business information contained in IP documents and in drafting of IP documents."

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