The Conundrum Of Compulsory Licensing

The compulsory licensing provision has been in force ever since the inception of Patent Laws in our country. Prior to the implementation of TRIPS provisions in the Indian Patent Law, the Controllers were comparatively liberal in granting compulsory licenses (hereinafter, CL) and India witnessed a fair number of CL's being granted for public greater good if the applicant could satisfactorily prove the need for a CL. Although, the Controllers favour public greater good even today, their decisions are influenced by additional restrictive factors as compared to the times when we were not TRIPS compliant. The case of Bayer v. Natco^[1] is a live example, where India faced a lot of criticism from the western world to grant its first CL to an Indian generic. Consequently, the United States Trade Representative Offices 2014 Special Report released on April 30, 2014 placed India on the priority watch list highlighting continuing concerns over India's inadequate protection