Title: The new Indian patent law: a challenge for India

Authors: Santanu Mukherjee

Addresses: Residence Moleson Flat No. 801, Rue du Molson 4, Geneva 1202, Switzerland

Abstract: The Indian patent law seems to have an unbreakable bond with the pharmaceutical industry. In the last 30 years India has travelled from being a country where pharmaceuticals were one of the world|s costliest, to the present where it is one of the world|s cheapest. The backbone for such achievement is India|s patent law which helped the Indian pharmaceutical industry (65% of which is owned by Indian companies), to grow at a rate of 8–10% a year. At this crucial stage, as India changed its patent law to cope with the present international legal requirements and also the demand from its home industry, she needs to reckon with a number of challenges. The present paper provides brief insight into the background to the amendment of the Indian patent law, analyses the amendments and discusses means to tackle probable challenges which might evolve.

Keywords: Indian patent amendment; patent law; TRIPS compliance; pharmaceutical industry; access to medicines; intellectual property management; IPM; Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights; IPR; India; developing countries; generic medicines.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIPM.2006.011026

International Journal of Intellectual Property Management, 2006 Vol.1 No.1/2, pp.131 - 149

Published online: 03 Oct 2006 *

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