The Ministry of Commerce and Industry, under the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, has introduced draft amendments to the Patents Rules, 2003. These drafts detail various changes proposed by the Central Government, anchored on section 159 of the Patents Act, 1970. The government seeks to amend the …
In August and September 2006, patients with cancer, lawyers for patient advocacy groups, and representatives of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) converged on the offices of Novartis in Mumbai, India, to protest the company's efforts to obtain an Indian patent on Gleevec, the company's brand-name version of imatinib mesylate. Gleevec (spelled Glivec …
Foreigners file 75 per cent of patent applications in India. Indian scientists and research organisations are also increasingly filing for patents, though mostly in the us. On the one hand, the preponderance of foreign patent applications in India, commentators say, could lead to increased dominance of foreign companies in Indian …
Trade secrets protection has acquired increased significance in the present scenario especially in view of the opening up of the world market and enhanced competition worldwide. Moreover, the fact that trade secret protection is increasingly being preferred over patent protection as a method for protecting undisclosed information has added to …
The war over Glivec, a cancer treatment drug, is expected to intensify as two writ petitions filed by Novartis AG, the Swiss pharmaceutical group, come up for hearing on September 26, 2006, in the Madras High Court. Petition 24754 was filed against the January 25, 2006, order of the assistant …
bacterial hold: Bacteria have hair-like protrusions with a sticky protein on the tip that enables them to cling to surfaces. The coiled, bungee cord-like structure of the protrusions helps the bacteria hang on tightly, even under rough fluid flow inside the body, claim a group of researchers at the University …
sri lanka has banned the export of a valuable medicinal plant, kothala himbutu or Salacia reticulate, widely used as a cure for diabetes in the country and also in Japan. The ban order was issued on June 15, 2006 and restricts the export of kothala himbutu except in the case …
A patent on a process for making storage - stable edible food materials from kernels of gorgon nuts or fox nut (Euryale ferox) has tremendous impact on biodiversity resulting in triggered mass culture and commercialization of this aquatic macrophyte. Besides ecological impact, it has social and economic impacts too. This …
the Indian origin of medical knowledge, used to develop modern treatments, will be given due recognition in Britain from now on. Presently, there is rampant misrepresentation of traditional treatment methods such as ayurveda and unani. Multinationals falsely market them as their innovations. But this bio-piracy will no longer be possible …
leather has always been in vogue. This time round, it will be eco-friendly leather that will dominate the markets if the two final-year students of the Government College of Engineering and Leather Technology, Kolkata, get a patent for their product
the genetically modified (gm) cotton story seems to be losing its thread. Most cotton-growing states in the country recently issued an order to force seed manufacturer Monsanto's licensees to sell its products at less than half the prevailing price. This move has led to litigation
A patent application for a key aids drug in India recently provoked a written protest to the Delhi patent office on May 9, 2006, by the Indian Network for People Living with hiv/aids and the Delhi Network of Positive People. It was followed by a protest march the next day …
India is moving towards amending a law to introduce provisions that will make it impossible for Indian pharmaceutical companies to produce generic versions of patented drugs. If it goes through we can say goodbye to cheap versions of expensive, sometimes life-saving, drugs produced by mncs. The government wants to amend …
The case of Gleevec, a cancer drug required for 24,000 patients suffering from chronic myeloid leukaemia in India, highlights the problem with tough patenting regimes, including data exclusivity, in developing countries. Gleevec is made by Novartis and costs a patient Rs 120,000 a month, while Indian manufacturers claim they can …
toxic pool: The Local Area Environment Committee (LAEC) recently termed the Eloor and Edayar industrial belt in Kochi, Kerala, a "toxic hot spot' filled with heavy metals and pesticides. LAECrecently submitted an environmental audit report to the Supreme Court Monitoring Committee. It found the presence of heavy metals from samples …
water wars are here: One protestor was killed when police opened fire at a group of farmers demanding release of water from a dam in Amravati district in Maharashtra on February 20, 2006. The farmers were demanding release of water from Chargarh dam to nearby villages. At least a dozen …
A patent application filed in India by the Swiss pharmaceutical company, Novartis ag, has been rejected. The company had filed for an Indian patent for the crystalline version of their off-patent anti-cancer drug, Gleevec. Rejecting the application, the office of the controller general of patents, designs and trademarks in Chennai …
expectations about the therapeutic potential of stem cells have suffered a setback with the revelation that a technique used for fraudulent research by Woo Suk Hwang of South Korea may still be granted a patent. "As long as an invention is not contrary to scientific laws
in a sudden turn-around, Roche Holding ag recently granted Hetero Drugs Limited (hdl), Hyderabad, a sub-licence to manufacture and market Oseltamivir (generic Tamiflu), one of the two effective drugs against bird flu. This is the first time such a sub-licence has been granted under the new Indian patent legislation, 2005, …
pharmaceuticals: The Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) regime was amended on December 6, 2005, to ensure patent protection for pharmaceutical products without, however, preventing people in poor countries from having access to medicines. But the production of cheaper varieties of protected drugs is subject to a cumbersome licensing procedure. …
The World Trade Organiation (wto) has extended the deadline for its 32-member Least Developed Countries (ldcs) to comply with the wto intellectual property (ip) regime until July 2013. The Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (trips) agreement, effective since 1995, had earlier given ldc s until January 2006 for …
