WTO, GATS and The Indian Patents Act, 1970 with Amendments

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Chapter: Forensic Pharmacy : WTO, GATS and The Indian Patents Act, 1970 with Amendments

The enactment of the Indian Patents Act (IPA), 1970 was a revolutionary step taken by the then Government with Late Smt. Indira Gandhi as the Prime Minister of the country.


WTO, GATS and The Indian Patents Act, 1970 with Amendments

The enactment of the Indian Patents Act (IPA), 1970 was a revolutionary step taken by the then Government with Late Smt. Indira Gandhi as the Prime Minister of the country. This Act was aimed at giving an impetus to the industrial and economic growth within the country by adopting process-patent strategy. The effective implemtation of this Act between 1970 and establishment of World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995 yielded desired results of increased production of different commodities by Indian industrial sector especially, in the field of drugs and pharmaceuticals. Before the enactment of IPA, 1970, the Indian pharmaceutical industry was largely depending upon import of drugs and technology and indigenous pharmaceutical sector was not in a position to compete mighty foreign companies established long back in the country. The provision of process-patent, and not the product-patent, provided in the Act was one ofthe important landmarks in enhancing the bulk drug production in the country.

India's strengths of trained manpower and knowledge base, good net work of research laboratories, well developed base industries, rich biodiversity, research access to vast and diverse disease populations, access to intellectual NRIs and strong agriculture base were effectively used all these years, with the legal backing of IPA, 1970 to boost production of drugs and pharmaceuticals within the country. The pharmaceutical industry in 2004 ranked fourth in the world in terms of volume (8%) of drug production. It however, occupied thirteenth position in the world in terms of value (around one percent) mainly, because of low cost of medicines in the country. The mandate for the Indian companies is to serve the cause of providing good quality, cheap and affordable drugs to the poor strata of the society.

The Committee constituted by the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) under the Chairmanship of Mr. Arthur Dunkel, the then Director-General of GATT came out with a draft report - "Dunkel Draft" - after deliberations amongst member countries of GATT for more than five years. The draft was finally approved by participating countries which ultimately, culminated in establishment of World Trade Organization (WTO) on 1-1-1995, the International Agency to act as watch-dog for implementation of the policies of TRIPS (Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights) and TRIM (Trade Related Investment Measures). The new patent regime pertaining to Intellectual Property has come into force from 1-1-1995 and India with some other countries, whose Intellectual Property legislations were not in agreement with provisions of TRIPS of WTO were given grace period of 10 years for implementation. To comply with the requirements of WTO, first amendment to the Act was effected in 1999, followed by another in 2003. Finally, the Govt. oPndia promulgated the Patent (Amendment) Ordinance which came into force w.e.f. lSI January, 2005. The Patents Rules 2003 were also modified appropriately which also came in force from 1-1-2005.

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