The Indian Patent system has been celebrated and censured , celebrated by those that see it in vestiges’ of the past , where nations could craft a patent policy to suit national priorities without succumbing to the pressures of global patent script and dictated largely by industrial interest of developed world and censured by those who think that India’s extensive use of TRIPS flexibilities to advance developmental priorities comes at the cost of global innovation.
Complete Specification necessary
The present frame of the Indian regime contains a unique set of provision not ordinarily found in other regimes. Patent working is one such provision. While most patents demand ‘disclosure’ in that the patentee must elaborate the invention in full so as to educate the people and those skilled in art to replicate it with relative ease, the Indian patent regime goes one step further. It requires that the disclosure even extends to mode and manner in which patents are being worked for greater public good. This information than can b used to trigger compulsory license and even patent revocation. To this extent the Indian IP regime not only gives exclusive IP rights, but also impose IP duties.
Conclusion
As an IP duty, patent working is central to the innovation ecosystem for its disclosure helps foster greater transparency by inter alia, pegging specific patents to products. This information is particularly valuable in high technology sector, where it is often impossible to co-relate patentees routinely flout this important legal tenet, and the government has all but turned blind eye. This paper reflects on this important statutory mandate and its jurisprudential underpinning, particularity in relation to two technology sectors: pharmaceuticals and high technology. It highlights a writ petitions filed by author of this paper to showcase the sheer callousness with which the patent working requirement has been treated by both patentees and government alike.
