India: A Glimpse Of Recent Developments In Patent Arena

The US Trade Representative 301 Report found that Indian IP regime favors the native and therefore, the chances of US downgrading India in this report was most likely.1 However, the Indian government refused to participate in US unilateral investigation while defending its IP regime. Essentially, India is compliant with its commitments under TRIPS and has used flexibilities which are available to WTO members and that is entirely within the limit and commitments made by India under TRIPS and WTO agreements. India is also gradually aligning its IP regime to the global regime. In the domain of patents, India became a contracting state to the Patent Cooperation Treaty ("PCT") on December 7, 1998 and this heralded an era of regulatory and procedural changes. Now, the Indian Patent Office ("IPO") enjoys the privileges enjoyed by the patent offices of other developed nations. The recent unprecedented decision of granting compulsory license for manufacturing patented drugs by Indian patent authorities have also evoked mixed responses and, turned the attention of other countries to the patent law developments in India.

The present bulletin will discuss the various changes carried out to the IPO by WIPO followed by the streamlining of the procedural aspects of patent registrations in view of the newly acquired status by IPO and, also, the concept and recent grant of compulsory license.

Full News:
http://www.mondaq.com/india/x/319732/Patent/A+Glimpse+Of+Recent+Developments+In+Patent+Arena

SC Clarifies Law On Patent Revocation Procedure

The Supreme Court, in a judgment dated 2nd June, 2014, clarified the procedure relating to revocation of patents. As per Section 64 of the Patents Act, a patent can be revoked by way of revocation petition before the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) or by way of a counter claim in a suit for infringement before the High Court. The SC held that only one of the two remedies available under Sec 64 of the Act can be availed so as to assail the grant of patent in India. This alert by Khaitan & Co. summarizes the ruling and its impact.

http://thefirm.moneycontrol.com/story_page.php?autono=1101631

Sabinsa, Sami Labs Acquire Two Patents in India

JAMMU, India—Sami Labs, sister company of Sabinsa, has entered into a tripartite agreement with the Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine (IIIM) and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) that allowed Sami and Sabinsa to acquire two Indian patents pertaining to pterocarpus marsupium, an existing ingredient in the Sabinsa global product portfolio.

 The agreement was signed at IIIM by Ram A. Vishwakarma, Ph.D., director, IIIM; Sadhana Srivastava, Ph.D., scientist, ICMR; and Muhammed Majeed, Ph.D., founder and managing director, Sami Labs Limited. R. K. Raina, Ph.D., consultant to IIIM; Sarang Bani, Ph.D., director, biological science at Sami Labs; and Abdul Rahim, head of PME, were also present.

IIIM, based in Jammu, is one of the oldest institutions of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), and was established in 1957. It is dedicated to advanced research on the isolation and standardization of drugs from natural products useful against various diseases. ICMR has led research on the isolation of novel compounds from pterocarpus marsupium for blood sugar management and two novel compunds were isolated, which showed significant activity in that area.

The two Indian patents for Sami/Sabinsa are: “A process for isolation of novel compound 2,6-dihydroxy-2-(P-hydroxybenzyl)-3(2H)-benzofuranone-7-C-ß-D-glucopyranoside from pterocarpus marsupium" under Patent No. 192163 “A process for extraction of antidiabetic formulation mainly containing flavonoid glycosides" under Patent No. 194292