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 …
Day before the gigantic Lef-organised rally on April 5, and the only slightly less large demo by the Right with BJP to protest the Indian government's endorsement of the Dunkel draft text for GATT, the Union cabinet decided to use Doordarshan for some intensive propagandising in favour of Dunkel. Viewers …
AS CHINA prepares to enter a market economy, it is busy putting its house in order. Two specialist courts will be set up in the key commercial centre of Shanghai to handle trademark and copyright violation cases, the pro-China Hong Kong-based daily Wen Wei Po reported. Shanghai courts have been …
THE US firm Agracetus is at the centre of a controversy in its home country, too. In 1992, it was awarded a patent that gives it rights over all forms of genetically engineered cotton - even ones that are to be invented (New Scientist, Vol 141, No 1913). The consequences …
A RECENT move by the government of India should pacify sceptics of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and intellectual property rights (IPRs). In a remarkable step, it has begun the procedure for revoking a patent for a method of producing transgenic cotton granted in May 1991 to …
THE Prime Minister, P V, Narasimha Rao, took a commendable step by revoking the patent granted to the US company, Agracetus, in 1991. Agracetus was awarded the patent for its transgenic cotton by the Indian Patent Office even though the Patent Act specifically forbids the Patenting of "investing process related …
DEVELOPED countries are busy increasing the breadth and depth of the intellectual property regime, using accusations of piracy. Yet, the innovations that multinationals have patented are heavily dependent on the biological and artistic knowledge of the people of the South. The argument that R&D; to isolate, separate and screen genes …
WHEN PETER Sutherland lowered the gavel in Geneva on December 15 to signify the end of the Uruguay round of negotiations on the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the reaction in India was sharply divided. While an enraged opposition charged the "economic sovereignty of the country had been …
A POTENTIAL threat to barley and other crops is the proposal that countries pay royalties for plant genetic materials used to create commercial varieties. Even as debate continues on the issue, developing countries have stepped up their demands for such royalties, says Henry Shands, genetic resources director at the US …
* PATENT wars are heating up. British drug manufacturer Glaxo has won one patents case against a Canadian manufacturer, but faces a second against another. Both claim Glaxo's products -- stable and unstable forms of Zantac -- are not different enough to justify different patents. Zantac is the world's best-selling …
The Union government claims it has found a way to protect the interests of Indian farmers in the ongoing Uruguay round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). For some time now, the Centre has faced the ire of the farmers, who strongly protest the clause in the …
AT A SMALL function in New Delhi in August, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) honoured six of its scientists who had obtained international patents for their inventions. Three scientists had patents registered in the US and the others in Europe. N R Subbaram, adviser to CSIR"s patents …
THE US patent and trademark office last December issued patents for three transgenic animals, which are animals that have been implanted with genes at an early developmental stage. The only previous animal patent issued was four-and-a-half years ago for the Harvard onco-mouse, into which cancer-causing genes had been introduced. Animal …
CRITICS say commerce minister Pranab Mukherjee's recent statement, in which he rejected the Dunkel proposals to patent seeds, is merely reiteration of the obvious in an attempt to protect the government from the anti-Dunkel lobby. Dinesh Abrol of the Delhi Science Forum, who is also a member of the non-governmental …
RESISTANCE to GATT secretary general Arthur Dunkel"s proposals is building up in India. But even as the government tries to pacify fears that it will give *in to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) - the all- encompassing global trade rules that are being negotiated - its game …
Indian government"s concerns with theDunkel draft Commerce ministry"s comments: What the critics say: If the facility for process palents, currently enjoyedby Indian drug manufacturers, is taken away,prices of several medicines patented by MNCs will soar. The magnitude of the price rise will depend on a variety of factors. in any …
Developing countries are concerned by the silent disappearance of some and the qver-simplificalion of other provisions of the Brussels Draft, 1990 -the first draft agreement reached during the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations. These provisions were of special interest 10 developing countries and were open for negotiations. But they …
THE DUNKEL draft on the renegotiated GATT is finally becoming a public concern in India and farmers are taking the issue to the streets. Several industrial sectors, too, have expressed concern about some of its provisions. Nevertheless, the government continues to fight shy of revealing either its stand or its …
INDIANS still do not have the culture of seeking patents. Over the last 15 years, foreigners have obtained two to three times more patents in India every year than Indians. In 1989-90, Indians held less than one-fifth of all patents in force in India. Of the 1,040 Indian applications filed …
THE BRITISH Technology Group (BTG) recently licensed Penn Pharmaceuticals to manufacture a "safer paracetamol," according to a report in New Scientist (Vol 135 No 1836). Paracetamol was considered a safe painkiller until it was found that if consumed in large doses, it could be fatal. When broken down in the …
PEOPLE who live in areas prone to droughts, floods and cyclones or amidst hills and forests have developed lifestyles best suited to their natural resources, thereby enriching the biodiversity of their areas. Diversity emerges only through the human ability to combine varied and often opposing patterns of life - to …
