Opening Statement by India
at the 26th session of the Standing Committee on the Law of Patents delivered by Dr. Sumit Seth, First Secretary - at the World Intellectual Property Organisation, Geneva on 3 July 2017
Thank you Madam Chair and Good Morning colleagues.
At the outset, India would like to align itself with the Asia Pacific Group Statement delivered by Indonesia.
Madam Chair:
The delegation of India would like to reaffirm its position that patent monopoly rights are granted to the inventors under the principle of "quid pro quo" for the disclosure of their inventions to the public and to foster innovation, industrial development and boost the national economy. The fundamental objective of Patent office should be rightful grants and improve the quality of Patent System as a whole which infuses the protection of public interest by filtering out frivolous patents.
We are of the view that harmonizing patent laws across countries having vast differences in economy, industrial and scientific development only creates concentration of IP assets with certain regions which doesn't help developing countries and LDCs. The Delegation of India firmly believes that our objective is to ensure that the global intellectual property regimes encourage the use of TRIPS flexibilities.
Madam Chair:
On the issue of quality of patents, including opposition systems, we are of the position that work sharing has not direct linkage with the quality of patents and therefore quality of examination needs to be improved substantially in conformity with the national policy objective of a country so that high social cost of granting patents to insignificant improvements may be eliminated to greater extent.
We would like to share with this committee that Indian Patent Office has recently joined WIPO CASE which allows the access to search and examination reports of various countries. However, my delegation firmly believes that it should not be made mandatory and should be left to the individual members to take decision as per their national objectives
On the issue of patents and health, the Delegations reaffirms its view on document SCP/21/9 concerning feasibility study on the disclosure of INN in patent applications and/or patents and on the proposed study on overbroad Markush Claims under the agenda items “patents and health” and “quality of patents”.
Madam Chair
The UN Secretary-General’s High Level Panel on Access to Medicines has specifically explored the policy incoherence between IP, trade and human rights and has made a number of recommendations in this regard. Some of these recommendations are specifically addressed to WIPO and are directly relevant to the subject of the sharing session on patents and health in the SCP. Delegation of India would like to see that the SCP initiates discussions based on this important report.
Madam Chair
Time and again the delegation of India has emphasized that, ever-greening policies for patenting incremental innovations without substantial improvement would have adverse impact on delivery of healthcare services. My Delegation hopes the sharing on the use of health related patent flexibilities enhances Member States understanding particularly DCs and LDCs.
On the issue of client-attorney privilege, my delegation reiterates its view that the issue is of substantive nature and could be governed by national laws. We have our concerns if the discussion on this topic progresses towards a soft law approach for the harmonization.
On the issue of transfer of technology, there should be balance of rights and obligations, the protection of patent applicant right should be based on technological content disclosed in patent specifications.
Any revision of 1979 WIPO Model Law for Developing Countries on Inventions should be as per the present needs of DCs and LDCs by fully utilizing TRIPS flexibilities.
My delegation, would like extends its full cooperation and is ready to participate constructively in the committee’s discussions. We wish this committee will have very fruitful, productive and meaningful outcome, more importantly a future work plan.
Before concluding, the Delegation of India would like to express its confidence in your experience, leadership and the manner in which you have conducted the last few sessions of SCP. We would also like to thank the WIPO Secretariat for preparation of this 26th Session of the SCP.
