Earlier this month, I blogged about the proposal submitted to the WTO’s TRIPS Council by India and South Africa. The proposal requests for the waiver of the obligations in the TRIPS Agreement on copyright, industrial designs, patents, and undisclosed information in relation to the prevention, containment, and treatment of COVID-19. This post is a follow-up… Continue reading Suspending TRIPS to Fight COVID-19? Part 2
India and South Africa have now submitted a proposal (dated 2 October 2020) to the WTO’s TRIPS Council requesting for the waiver of Sections 1 (Copyright), 4 (Industrial Designs), 5 (patents), and 7 (undisclosed information) of Part II of the TRIPS Agreement in relation to the prevention, containment, and treatment of COVID-19. The waiver would… Continue reading Suspending TRIPS to Fight COVID-19?
Last week, the Indian government released its much awaited National Intellectual Property Rights Policy. As stated in the document, the rationale behind the policy ‘lies in the need to create awareness about the importance of IPRs as a marketable financial asset and economic tool.’ This rationale is clearly reflected in some of the objectives contained… Continue reading India’s Intellectual Property Policy and Human Rights
India’s patent regime is in the news again. This time, there have been reports that the Indian government has ‘privately assured’ the US-India Business Council (USIBC) that ‘ it would not use Compulsory Licenses for commercial purposes.’ To be sure, the Indian government, through its Ministry of Commerce and Industry, has issued a ‘clarification‘ to the… Continue reading Framing India’s Alleged Assurances on Compulsory Licences as a Human Rights Issue
In its implementation of the TRIPS Agreement, India incorporated a clever provision into its Patents Act. This clever provision, Section 3(d), is essentially aimed at preventing the grant of secondary patents on trivial modifications of existing drugs. This provision was relied upon by the Indian Supreme Court in 2013 to deny Novartis a patent on… Continue reading Will Section 3(d) Make India A Patent-Free Zone?
Emmanuel Oke 