Intellectual Property Rights

AMONG all the provisions of the WTO agreement, the one relating to Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) has possibly been the most widely debated in the country. There are very good reasons why this … Read more

A few days back, the Health Minister of South Africa, Dr Motsoaledi, characterised an elaborate plot hatched by large multinational drug companies as “genocide” and a conspiracy of “satanic magnitude”. He was referring to public … Read more

TWO recent events show, once again, how the regulatory mechanisms that apply to medicines is deeply flawed and influenced by the industry. The first is the notification of ceiling prices for essential medicines by the … Read more

Angelina Jolie’s Op-Ed piece in the New York Times (May 14, 2013) stating why she had a double mastectomy (or breast removal) has created a media sensation across the world. Jolie is an icon and … Read more

The Supreme Court’s judgement throwing out Novartis’ attempts to secure a patent for the leukaemia drug Glivec has created a frenzy in the pink press – both in India and abroad. For them, one of … Read more

STRANGELY enough, the more lawyers a government has, the more poor are the draft laws it produces. Apart from the still continuing fiasco of the Lok Pal Bill, we have “The Protection and Utilisation of … Read more

AARON Swartz, an activist for free information, a precocious talent who had designed and developed a whole host of tools that we all use today, committed suicide on January 11. He was facing 35 years … Read more

  “Capital is as terrified of the absence of profit or a very small profit as nature is of a vacuum. With suitable profits, capital is awakened; with 10 percent, it can be used anywhere; … Read more

TODAY, the new digital age is recreating a number of much older ideas. Producing software collaboratively and with various free software licenses is building a new digital commons. This is not all. We also have … Read more

SEVERAL recent reports in the press indicate that the prime minister’s office had sought the opinion of some ministries regarding issues related to the Indian patents act. In itself, this would pass as a routine … Read more

FIVE years ago the Indian Patent Act was amended to provide for patenting of medicines. Thanks to the efforts of Left Parties in parliament, supported by several movements and groups in the “access to medicines” … Read more

FOR over two years the government has made known its intention to introduce a bill in parliament, titled: “Public Funded Research and Development (Protection, Utilisation and Regulation of Intellectual Property) Bill”. The standing committee on … Read more