Intervention on Transfer of Technology at SCP/24

Madam Chair,

India has recently announced the National IPR Policy and in that, the promotion of technology transfer of IPRs is one of the most importantsteps towards attainingthe objectives of the National IPR policy.

Madam Chair,

With respect to agenda item, Transfer of Technology, the Delegation of India recallsthe objectives of the TRIPS agreement that, “the protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights should contribute[….] to the transfer and dissemination of technology [….]in a manner conducive to social and economic welfare, and to a balance of rights and obligations”. We also recall the principles of the TRIPS agreement that, “Appropriate measures [….]be needed to prevent the abuse of intellectual property rights by right holders or the resort to practices which [….] adversely affect the international transfer of technology”.We also refer Paragraphs 48 & 49 of document SCP/14/4 and reaffirm that the knowledge content of the patent specification serves as an extremely important tool for the transfer of technology.

Having said that, my Delegation reaffirms that “sufficiency of disclosure” is at the heart of the matter of the patent law and provided the quid pro quo of the patent system.Regarding the transfer of technology &sufficiency of discourse, SCP/22/4had revealed that, under ideal conditions, the patent specification should divulge the technology inan enabling manner. Article 29 of the TRIPS agreement also stipulates that “……an applicant for a patent shall disclose the invention in a manner sufficiently clear and complete for the invention to be carried out by a person skilled in the art….".

However, in many instances, especially in healthcare sector, where a product could not be produced due toinsufficient disclosure in patent specification. Thus, wewonder to what extent patent system could contribute to technology transfer as a stand-alone system without the aid of accompanying trade secrets. And if, technology transfer without the aid of accompanying trade secretsis not possible, the basic purpose of the patent systemis forfeited and such inability of transforming invention into commercial reality poses a serious challenge to the very purpose of the patent system.

We therefore, reiterate our proposal that role of patent systems in the context of transfer of technologyshould be carefully studied in the background of sufficiency.Accordingly, the SCP requires continuing further the study on SCP/22/4 concerning the study on sufficiency of disclosure under agenda item transfer of technology.Further, we also propose a sharing session on 'Sufficiency of Disclosure' should also be considered under the Quality of Patents because there were two studies, namely inventive step & sufficiency of disclosure, discussed in the 22nd session of the SCP. Thus, the logic for the sharing session on inventive step in the last sessionalso applies to the sharing on sufficiency of disclosure.

Thank you, Madam Chair.
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