The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Commerce, which is looking into the Patents (Amendment) Bill 2003, has invited suggestions on the Bill from various quarters, to be submitted on or before February 15 2004. The decision of the committee has come as a surprise, as the Lok Sabha stands to be dissolved on February 6, and the Bill as such is certain to lapse. Once the Bill lapses, the suggestions and opinions on the Bill also automatically turn invalid, it is learnt.

The Patents (Amendment) Bill, 2003, introduced in the Lok Sabha on 22nd December 2003, was referred to the Department Related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Commerce, with Kailash Joshi, member, Rajya Sabha, as its chairman, for examination and report last week. It is known that the committee in its recent sitting took a decision without considering the ground realities.

According to ministry sources, the fate of the present Bill depends upon the new Lok Sabha. The new government can either re-introduce the same Bill or go in for changes before placing it in the Parliament. The entire process has to be repeated and the committee will have to examine the new report also the same way.

The Patents Act, 1970 was first amended in March, 1999, and again in June, 2002 to meet India's obligations under the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) which forms part of the agreement establishing the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

The proposed third amendment aims to introduce the product patent protection in all fields of technology as per Article 27 of the TRIPs Agreement; to delete the provisions relating to exclusive marketing rights and to introduce a transitional provision for safeguarding exclusive marketing rights already granted; to introduce a provision for enabling grant of compulsory license for export of medicines to countries which have insufficient or no manufacturing capacity to meet emergent public health situations. This provision is in accordance with the agreement reached on August 30 2003 for implementation of Para 6 of the Doha Declaration on TRIPs and Public Health

The Bill intends to amend and strengthen the provisions relating to national security; to amend the provisions relating to Appellate Board with a view to extending its jurisdiction to revocation of patents also; to amend the provisions relating to opposition procedures; to amend certain provisions with a view to harmonize them with the Patent Cooperation Treaty to which India is a signatory; to amend the provisions relating to time limit for different activities with a view to introducing flexibility and reducing the processing time for patent application and to amend provisions of the Act with a view to simplify and rationalize the procedure aimed at benefiting the users.