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India agrees to abide by Paris Convention

In a major decision, India has agreed to abide by the Paris Convention for the Protection of Intellectual Property and the Patent Cooperation Treaty, according to the UN patent agency, the World Intellectual Property Organisation.

Both treaties will be binding on India as of December 7.

The two treaties are considered the main accords regarding international protection of intellectual property. The Paris Convention lays down the basic principles governing protection of patents, trademarks and industrial designs.

The Patent Cooperation Treaty makes it possible to fill out a single application for a patent that will be valid in several countries, reducing costs and paperwork.

The decision was welcomed by patent lawyers, India's trading partners and the United Nations alike.

The signing is particularly significant coming amid the increasingly vocal debate over biopiracy. Many developing nations and indigenous groups consider it a theft of their innovations by companies that use patent laws to gain exclusive rights over their resources.

India has claimed biopiracy in a current case involving a patent granted to a US company for rice similar to India's famous basmati grain.

Patents allow inventors to exclude all others from making, using or selling their invention for a specified period of time. Inventors can get a patent if they can prove that their product is useful, new and is not obvious.

India had for years resisted the growing trend of worldwide patent protection that came along with the global economy, where a bottle of aspirin in a New Delhi drug store was as likely to be imported as it was to be locally made.

India had a shortened patent exclusivity period, meaning Indian companies could sell generic drugs at an earlier date than what was specified in the patent of the name-brand drug. While enabling Indians to buy cheaper drugs, the policy drove away foreign investment.

New Delhi apparently began to change its view toward the need for patent protection last year, when it successfully overturned a US patent obtained by American scientists for using turmeric as a wound healer.

Indian scientists, armed with ancient medicinal texts, represented to the US Patent and Trademark Office that the patent did not meet the 'novelty' requirement because Indians had long used turmeric to heal wounds.

There are now 151 countries which adhere to the Paris Convention and 1998 countries which have signed the Patent Cooperation Treaty.

UNI