How long back would you have to look if you wanted to find the
link between patents and politics? Probably at the very inception
of patents. The linkage between the two can be traced to the first
letters patent granted by royal decree. When patent rights were
born, they were translated by the political will of the monarch. In
the 1990s, when the Agreement on Trade-related Aspects of
Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) was signed, world politics
stood divided between developed vis-à-vis developing and
least developed countries. Amid a lot of upheaval an uneasy treaty
forged its way ahead.
Free patent years
In the 1970s India had a free patent regime which, combined with
drug price control, kept drugs at reasonable price. Post the
signing of TRIPS in 1995, India was given a transition period of 10
years to become fully compliant in view of its status as a
developing country. This 10-year period paved the way for the
Indian pharmaceutical industry to flourish.
