The Second Coming of the Public Interest into Patent Law
12(8) Journal of Intellectual Property Law and Practice (OUP 2017) 712-713
3 Pages Posted: 1 May 2017 Last revised: 24 Aug 2017
Date Written: March 1, 2017
Abstract
The Republic of India, never a stranger to defining its own path of development, realized that different jurisdictions have different needs. The leaders of this populous developing country have made full use of the policy space available to them to make long term decisions to guarantee affordable medicines and create a thriving generics pharmaceutical industry in the process. The book takes the reader from the Indian Patents and Designs Act of 1911 via the Chand and Ayyangar Commitees in the sixties, when medicines were not affordable to most Indians, to the Patents Act 1970 and further. The Patents Act 1970 introduced a prohibition against granting product patents for medicines but allowed process patents for medicines. This prohibition, which lasted until 2005, helped create an indigenous pharmaceutical industry, where generics companies ingeniously worked around patented processes. The generics and active pharmaceutical ingredients were not only in great demand domestically, but also in developing countries that lacked the capacity to manufacture medicines.
Keywords: Access to Medicines, Indian Patent System, Pharmaceutical Law, Inventiveness, Industrial Application, Enhanced Efficacy Standard, Further Medical Use, Public Interest
JEL Classification: Q30, Q31, Q39
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation