A Changing Regime - India´s Tryst with January 1, 2005

The patent regime in India is due for a seismic change on January 1, 2005. When India became a member of WTO and a signatory to TRIPS with effect from January 1, 1995 it was given five years as a developing country, to change its laws to comply with TRIPS. This period was later extended by five years and now comes to end on January 1, 2005.

TRIPS inter alia, required grant of process as well as product patent in all fields of technology, for a period of twenty years from the date of filing of the application. The (Indian) Patent Act, 1970 did not permit product patent for food, medicine/drugs and substances produced by chemical processes. For these, only a process patent was granted, for a period of seven years while for the rest, the term of the patent was fourteen years.