National Working Group on Patent Laws and Public Interest Legal Support and Research Centre (New Delhi based non-official organisations) constituted "Peoples" Commission on Patent Laws for India. The Report of the Commission is presented to the people of India, hoping that Parliament and Government will consider the views expressed in the Report.
National Working Group of Patent Laws and Public Interest Legal Support and Research Centre entrust the publication of the People's Commission Report to the Centre for Study of Global Trade System and Development, New Delhi.
India is under obligation to change its Patents Act 1970 to conform to the provisions of the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement. Parliament has already enacted Patents Act 1999 and Patents (Second Amendment) Act 2002 to fulfil its obligations. There will be enactment of yet another legislation before 1.1.2005 to provide for product patents for areas of technologies, which were not covered by India, by product patent as on 1.1.1995, when WTO was established.
The Doha Declaration on TRIPS Agreement and Public Health arising from an extensive deliberations and major role played by our delegation in the forth WTO Ministerial Conference held at Doha during November, 2001 recognized the gravity of public health problems afflicting developing and least developed countries. The Declaration recognized the right of the WTO members to use, to the full, the flexibilities available in the TRIPS Agreement for taking measures to protect public health. This Declaration also underlined freedom and rights of the WTO member countries to grand compulsory licenses and to determine the ground upon which such licences could be granted.
The joint Parliamentary Committee submitted its Report and Revised Patents Bill to both the Houses of Parliament in December, 2001. The flexibilities and freedom which become available in the Doha Declaration on public health of November 2001 have not been fully implemented in the Revised Bill which was later passed by Parliament with minor few amendments in May 2002.
The National Working Group on Patent Laws and Public Interest Legal Support and Research Centre took initiative and pointed out the weaknesses of the Revised Bill to the Former Prime Minister Honorable Shri. I.K. Gujral and other eminent personalities. Considering the seriousness of the matter from public interest angle People’s Commission on Patent Laws for India was established with Honorable Shri. I.K. Gujral as the Chairman and Prof. Yashpal, Prof. Muchkund Dubey, Shri B.L. Das, Dr. Yusuf Hamied and Dr. Rajeev Dhavan as its Members to apprise themselves about the weakness of the amended legislation.
