Intellectual Property

Intellectual Property :

            India is signatory to the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the country is taking steps to enact the provisions of the WTO in letter and spirit. Regulatory dictums within the framework of international commitments of India to WTO and Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) have been put in place. These include enactment of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Right Act and creation of Plant Quarantine Authority of India. The Plant Varieties and Farmer’s Rights Act provides protection for plant varieties that are novel, distinct, uniform and stable, for a period of 15 years from the date of registration (in respect of trees and vines, the period is 18 years). The Biological Diversity Act has been framed with the intention of protecting India’s rich bio-diversity and associated knowledge against their use by commercial undertakings without sharing the benefits that arise out of such use. The Indian patent laws have been significantly amended in the last ten years through successive amendments, the last one coming in January, 2005, as part of India’s commitments to the WTO. It provides for product as well as process patent. India has signed the Budapest Treaty and established an International Depository Authority for Microbial Type Culture Collections at Chandigarh. The Department of Biotechnology has also published the ethical document entitled “Ethical Policies on Human Genome, Genetic Research and Services” prepared by the “National Bioethics Committee” and bans any research on human cloning and germline interventions by Indian investigators