Category Asia/Pacific

Special Report: Will India Bend To US Pressure On IP Rights?

It is no secret that the United States has been scaling up pressure on India to adopt intellectual property measures similar to those common in the United States and the European Union. But to what extent does India’s new government led by the business-friendly Narendra Modi see eye to eye with US official position? Can India, the “pharmacy of the world”, resolve the friction between pharmaceutical patents and access to affordable medicines without putting off foreign investors? The vitriolic and polarising debate surrounding these questions has got a fresh lease of life following US President Barack Obama’s landmark three-day visit to India this week.

While Indian and American business moguls are bullish about the future, Indian generic drug-makers as well as health activists within and outside India are deeply anxious about the shape of things to come

Technical Investigators Have Rules To Follow In China’s Intellectual Property Courts

BEIJING - With the Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou Intellectual Property Courts being put into operation late last year, the rules for technical investigators had been missing until 21 January, when the Supreme People’s Court released the Provisional Regulations of the Supreme People’s Court on Several Issues concerning the Participation of Technical Investigators in Intellectual Property Court Proceedings. This is China’s first of its kind making rules for technical investigators.

Key Hepatitis C Patent Rejected In India

Today's rejection by the Patent Office Controller of India of a patent application by Gilead company for a key drug against hepatitis C is being hailed by advocates as a path to dramatically lower costs of treatment for the disease. Hepatitis C has been noteworthy for exorbitantly priced medicines over the past year. A look at the decision shows that a provision in India's law continues to stop patent applications if they fail to show sufficient novelty and inventive step - and are subject to opposition.

Most-Read IP-Watch Stories In 2014: A Tale Of Staff Issues, India, Hot-Button Topics

All year long, Intellectual Property Watch expends great energy and resources to bring hundreds of carefully written, detailed stories on policymaking - technical committee meetings, legislation, negotiations, legal cases, and latest reports and papers. But in what is perhaps typical of readers everywhere, many of the best-read IP-Watch stories of 2014 were those few that involved elections and personnel issues and India, followed by a range of hot button issues such as high-priced medicines, copyright and knowledge access, patent valuation, or internet surveillance.

Will India, US Bridge Divide Over Intellectual Property Rights?

There is an uptick in India-United States relations. US President Barack Obama will be in India in January as the chief guest at the country’s Republic Day Parade. Obama, who hosted India’s new Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Washington in September, will become the first US president to attend such a celebration, a display of India’s military might and ethnic diversity, as well as the first to visit India twice while in office.

WIPO Seminar: For Access To Hepatitis C Treatments, Look At HIV Lessons

A seminar on innovation and access to medicine last week examined the issue of access to hepatitis C treatment, looking at the HIV/AIDS path. Voluntary licences, such as the one entered by Gilead for its hepatitis drugs, have been applauded but such licences often do not cover middle-income countries, which are home to the bulk of hepatitis C patients, and whose poor populations remain unable to access treatment.

USTR Froman Presses India On IPR Regime

"Nearly one-third of all Silicon Valley start-ups have an Indian-American co-founder," United States Trade Representative Michael Froman said in remarks on India today. The country of India is also innovating, but it must do more to have and enforce a world-class intellectual property rights regime, he said.

US IP Industry Meeting With Indian Judges A “Ruse”, Activists Say

Public health activists and others have been watching closely in recent months as United States government and industry officials meet steadily and intensively with Indian counterparts to press change in that country's intellectual property policy toward greater protection and recognition of western IP rights. A particular area of concern has been in pharmaceuticals, as India is said to be the world's top supplier of affordable generic versions of drugs under patent that otherwise would be out of reach for millions of poor patients. Several activists have raised alarm over a meeting this week of US IP industry representatives with top judges in India.