Indian patent law amendments to be introduced in parliament in March; Opportunity for “fine-tuning” still available

India recently satisfied its TRIPs obligations in the 11th hour by issuing an ordinance amending the patent law to expand the scope of patentable subject matter to include pharmaceuticals and other products.  The ordinance was used, as opposed to a legislative effort, because political differences in the Indian Parliament prevented introduction of an appropriate bill in a timely manner (the law had to be amended by January 1, 2005).

While the ordinance appears to satisfy India’s TRIPs obligations for now, it still must be approved by Parliament to be made permanent.  This article reports that the amendments made by the ordinance will be introduced in Parliament in March and that government officials are indicating that “fine-tuning” can still be done:

 “We are open even today to ideas and suggestions to fine-tune the amendments to patent rules and law,’’  Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion A.K. Jha.

For more on the Indian patent law changes, visit the permalink for this entry and review the prior PTP posts listed for keyword “INDIA_TRIPS.”