Upper house of Indian parliament passes patent bill

India’s upper house, the Rajya Sabha, today passed the controversial patent amendments bill, paving the way for the amendments to become law and to make Indian patent law TRIPs compliant. (yesterday actually, midnight just passed…)

The political debate in the parliament turned out to be as heated as expected.  Numerous amendments to the bill were submitted and approved, and several protests were mounted.  Some members even walked out of session in protest without casting votes.

What’s left after the debate?  Details aren’t clear yet (I’m even more appreciative of Thomas after following this issue…the online resources of the Indian parliament leave much to be desired), but it appears that drugs are in, and embedded software is out.

Did they get it right?  Where does this place the Indian patent law vis-a-vis that of the United States?  I plan to write a bit about that once I see a copy of the bill as passed.  An early thought I have is that many of the issues turned on obviousness (though not framed as such).  I think they nailed it on one side, and missed the mark on another.  More to come…