Under Article 65 of the World Trade Organisation's (WTO's) Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), India is expected to put in place the amended patent rules by the end of this year. To meet the deadline, the Government is expected to amend the Indian Patent Rules, 1972, early next month.

"We are aware of the requirement of TRIPS and are, therefore, not against the patent laws and the necessary changes," said IDMA's IPR committee chairman Nihchal H Israni. "What is necessary is not just a studied and a balanced approach to the whole issue of TRIPS-related changes, but also the need to change our strategy and draft the patent rules to suit our own industry and not those of the developed countries behind the WTO and TRIPS", he said. Israni will soon take over as IDMA's president.

Addressing presspersons in Mumbai, Israni said: "The balanced approach requires that on the one hand, genuine innovators and patent-holders are rewarded through royalties for their significant product/process inventions, and on the other, the consumers' right of free access to medicines at reasonable and competitive prices is protected through adequate local production and compulsory licencing to interested local producers, who will pay royalties to original inventors for use of their patents and technology."

Mumbai high court adjourns hearing to November 24
The Mumbai high court on Tuesday again adjourned till November 24 the hearing on the case pertaining to the objections raised against the amendments to the Patents Rules, 1972.

The case filed in early July this year has now been postponed thrice. It was first scheduled for hearing on September 27, but was postponed till November 16. On Tuesday, it came up for hearing, but according legal sources, justice Chandrachud, representing the Government, was not available. Inevitably, the court was forced to adjourn the hearing till November 24 which, legal sources feel, will be the final hearing before the Governmnet takes up the amendment of the rules in early December to meet the end-1999 deadline.

The legal tangle between the Government and IDMA is going on since mid-July this year. The Government had in early June notified the amendments to the rules following the enactment of the Patents (Amendment) Act, 1999.

The bench, comprising justices Ghodeshwar and Radhakrishnan, had earlier asked all parties concerned to file written submissions by September 27, but as the Government was yet to make its written submission, the court was forced to adjourn the case to November 16.