With cases of seizures of Indian drug shipments at several international ports increasing day by day, the Pharmaceutical Export Promotion Council (Pharmexcil) will organise a day-long seminar in Mumbai on August 21. The theme of the seminar will be 'Patent Litigation as Barrier in International Pharmaceutical Trade'.

Eminent speakers like Prof Dr Shamnaad Basheer, professor in IP Law, National University of Juridical Sciences, Calcutta, Dr Gopakumar G Nair, advisor, Pharmexcil, among others, would be making their presentations on present scenario.

The seminar is significant as there were several instances of seizures by EU/US Custom authorities of the Indian generic medicines in transit to various developing countries in Latin America and Africa on the grounds of counterfeit/patent infringement, patent litigations in US courts, etc.

Pharmexcil has been organising a series of seminars on this subject for the last some months to instil awareness among the exporters on the patent issues prevailing in the EU nations and the US. This programme will be the fourth in series organized by Pharmexcil. The Pharmexcil, with the support of Department of Pharmaceuticals, had earlier started a Patent Facilitation Centre at Hyderabad and it has been working successfully by giving satisfactory assistance to the exporters on various types of patent related queries.

During the last some months, there were reports of increasing incidents of seizures of Indian drug shipments meant for other countries at EU ports on charges of counterfeiting and patents infringement. Major places where Indian goods were seized included the ports in Miami, Germany, France and The Netherlands. Most of these drugs were on its way to countries like Brazil, Peru, Columbia, etc where these drugs are not patented.

The entire patent issue was triggered when the EU countries started implementation of local patent rules rigidly. These EU rules stipulate that any product patent that has been granted in EU countries, if being transported through their countries, is also liable for confiscation under their patent law.