Home | Databases | WorldLII | Search | Feedback Edited Legal Collections Data

Dhar, Biswajit; Gopakumar, K.M. --- "The Case of the Generic Industry in India" [2009] ELECD 584; in Meléndez-Ortiz, Ricardo; Roffe, Pedro (eds), "Intellectual Property and Sustainable Development" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2009)

Book Title: Intellectual Property and Sustainable Development

Editor(s): Meléndez-Ortiz, Ricardo; Roffe, Pedro

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781848446458

Section: Chapter 6

Section Title: The Case of the Generic Industry in India

Author(s): Dhar, Biswajit; Gopakumar, K.M.

Number of pages: 43

Extract:

6. The case of the generic industry in India
Biswajit Dhar and K.M. Gopakumar1

INTRODUCTION

Since the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations were initiated, different
authorities, stakeholders and interest groups in India have been analysing the issue of
intellectual property rights. The accompanying debate has mostly focused on changes to
the patent regime that the TRIPS Agreement would create and the implications that these
changes would have on access to medicines.
This debate has a historical basis in India. One of the first laws that the country took up
for review after it became a sovereign state in 1947 was the patent law.2 Two expert groups
examined the patent regime existing at that time and the Indian Parliament considered
the findings in depth.3 The culmination of this process was the Patents Act of 1970, which
is widely considered as the basis for the development of a strong pharmaceutical industry
in India.
The changes effected by the Patents Act of 1970 had at least three major implications
for the pharmaceutical industry. In the first place, only process patents were allowed in
the area of chemicals, which included pharmaceuticals. Second, the term of patent was
reduced for process patents in pharmaceuticals. In all other areas the term of patent was
fixed at 14 years from the date of application for the patent; for pharmaceuticals the term
of patent was seven years from the date of application for a patent or five years from its
date of grant, whichever ...