Compulsory License under Patent Regime: Indian Perspective

Abstract

Patents in India are granted to encourage the inventions. It secures that patents have worked on a commercial scale. The Act ensures that a monopoly for the import of patented article is not enjoyed by the patentee. It further provides for the compulsory license as a measure that the public need is not overlooked by the patent law. In this article, recent instances of grant and refusal of the compulsory licenses in India are considered and the current views on it are being discussed. Within this frame of analysis, it is proposed that the need to change the Indian view for grant is relevant. Compulsory licenses are becoming a tool for the easy access of generic drugs in the market. Hence India has from the beginning kept the strict view on grant of such compulsory licenses. It’s evident from the current scenario that India has rejected many applications of compulsory licenses. Though it affected various international business companies as the nature of environment required for their development couldn’t be meet with non granting of compulsory license in India, certain positive changes has occurred which is evident from the grant of first compulsory license in India. The article deals with the statutory provisions of compulsory license, international treaties and agreements with regard to compulsory license and the instances of grant of compulsory license thus far.

Keywords: Compulsory License, Inventions, Patents, IPR