Statement by India at 13th session of Standing Committee on the Law of the Patents 23 March 2009, Geneva

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 Thank you Mr. Chairman. I would like to begin by stating that India aligns itself with the statement made by the distinguished delegate of Sri Lanka as coordinator of the Asian Group.

I wish to firstly thank you Mr. Chairman, for your excellent leadership.  I would also like to convey the sincere gratitude of my delegation to the Director General and the WIPO Secretariat for the commendable work done in compiling the four reports.

In my delegation’s view, these preliminary studies provide valuable information and a good starting point for open, constructive and forward looking deliberations that could take the work programme in the SCP forward, on a consensual basis. As many other delegations who have spoken before me have pointed out, we do note that there are certain gaps in the studies and areas that merit deeper examination and scrutiny, especially from the perspective of development. As requested by a few other delegations, we would be happy if the Secretariat could furnish further information on the authorship of the studies, the framework of reference and the research modalities employed in preparing them.

In terms of future areas of study by this Committee, we feel that studies on (i) Technology Transfer, (ii) Impact of Patents on Economic Development and (iii) Alternate Models of Innovation, would be useful.

Mr. Chairman, my delegation welcomes the fact that deliberations in this important committee have widened from the earlier limited focus on harmonization to a broader range of public policy issues that are relevant to developing countries.  We hope that these studies contribute further in this direction and a broad, inclusive and balanced work programme is evolved for the SCP.  My delegation, on its part, is ready to cooperate and work constructively to this end.

Mr. Chairman, the inter-linkages of patents with economic development and public policy challenges is important to my delegation, which views the Intellectual Property regime as an instrument for economic development. Given the varying degrees of socio-economic development in countries, we believe that it is essential that individual countries should have the freedom to adapt the patent system to their specific, national requirements.  There cannot be a ‘one size fits all’ approach and international norms should be broad enough to allow the space and flexibility necessary for developing countries to formulate policies conducive to their economic development.

As regards remarks by some delegations that there should be no duplication of work in WIPO committees, India joins other delegations like Thailand, Egypt and South Africa that have pointed out the complementarity between different Committees and the fact that development is a crosscutting issue.  The norm setting cluster of the Development Agenda should serve as guidelines for the work of the SCP, whose work has to be compatible with the developmental guidelines accepted by the WIPO General Assembly.

Mr. Chairman, we commend the initiative of the Secretariat in organizing the proposed Conference on Global Challenges and look forward to productive deliberations on the four themes.  However, keeping in view the mandate approved by the previous SCP, the limited time available and the fact that each of these four themes encompass wide ranging, substantive areas, we are of the view that the theme of the Conference should be restricted to what was originally mandated in the last SCP Meeting. We will offer further comments on this issue when the agenda item comes up for discussion.

Thank you Mr. Chairman

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