Recently, the United States President has threatened to take unilateral trade retaliation, if India continues to avail “special and differential treatment” in the WTO regime. The threat alone has the potential to inhibit the exercise of policy options by India and other developing countries...

The obligation to work a patent in the patent granting country contributes to a variety of public policy goals such as technology transfer resulting in narrowing the deep North-South gap in development levels. With the advent of the TRIPS Agreement, pre-existing rights of country members to...

The globalisation of IPRs under the TRIPS Agreement and discretion of country members of WTO to specify in their domestic legislation to prevent IPR-related anti-competitive practices raise complex questions. This paper takes up a necessary antecedent question: what flexibilities does TRIPS...

In Bayer Corporation v. Union of India and others, the High Court of Bombay affirmed the decision of the Controller of Patents and Intellectual property Appellate Board to grant Compulsory License in favour of Natco Pharma. This decision has firmly established India’s first compulsory license...

This article examines the legality of the Indian pharmaceutical company Lee Pharma's application for compulsory licence for Saxagliptin (Onglyza and Kombiglyze), an anti-diabetes drug, the patent for which is held by the Swedish multinational company AstraZeneca. What are the merits of the prima...

The threat of the US to impose unilateral trade sanctions continues with the release of USTR 2020 Special 301 Report for the “TRIPS-plus” patent protection to the US-based pharmaceutical MNCs in India. Waiving a “big stick” with unmerited “concerns” against Government of India to...

The trend of the continued rejection of compulsory licence applications in India goes against the local generic drug manufacturers and public health safeguards incorporated in the Indian patent law. It raises serious questions about the intervening role of the state in patent monopoly to...

Bayer has lost its case challenging the grant of India’s first-ever compulsory licence to Natco Pharma to manufacture an affordable generic version of an anti-cancer drug, but the celebratory air has to be tempered. The issue of what constitutes “local working” of a patent in India...

In the Indian patent system, Form 27 identifies the format in which patentees and licencees provide information about the working of their patented invention in India. The Patents (Amendment) Rules 2020 have replaced the existing Form 27 with a new one. The changes in Form 27, while addressing...