In a recent representation to the union government, IDMA has urged the Centre not to remove right of pre-grant opposition to a new patent application.

IDMA in the representation has asked the centre to see the right of third parties (i.e. affected parties and public at large) to file 'objections' officially to a patent application, which they consider not falling within patentability criteria.

"Objections can be raised before a patent is granted and also after the grant of patent. The post-grant opposition right is inherent and cannot be denied. We are considering here the case for having "pre-grant opposition" right in our Patents Act," it said.

It was Justice Aiyangar upon whose recommendations this provision was included in Patents Act 1970. "Now the government is proposing to omit it (Section 25 and 26) and replace it with a "pre-grant representation. We feel that it is a retrograde step," it said.

At present the right of pre-grant opposition exists in the law. The main grounds on which the right of pre-grant opposition is available in the present Section 25 of the Patents Act are title, fraud, already known or published information, suppression or non-disclosure of past filing history, affecting patentability criteria, information, which is already known in our traditional knowledge and non-disclosure of the source of biological material.

"The moot point is whether the pre-grant opposition right should be kept in our law or not. The MNCs want pre-grant opposition to be abolished. By doing this, they would get the patent monopoly quickly without any difficulty. The post-grant Court case would drag on for years. It is the public which suffers from such cases - being charged through the nose for all these years- even if the patent is invalidated later. The public also will not get back their money," it argued.