QUESTION:
The concept of product patent for pharmaceutical products is likely to make life saving medicine beyond the reach of the poor and deprived section of the society around the world.
A number of African countries have been the worst hit by the spective of AIDS. CIPLA an Indian Pharmaceutical Company has offered to market ant aids medicine at one length the cost at which it is sold by global pharmaceutical firm. However due to the product patent, law, substantial controversy has been generated around the globe on ethical grounds
As a business management, strategist discuss and advice on how to deal with this Issue.
INTRODUCTION
A patent is a legal document that is granted to the first person to invent a particular invention” states Nicholas Godici, former Commissioner of Patents at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). “It allows them to exclude others from making, using or selling the invention that’s described in the patent for a period of twenty years from the date that they first filed the application.”
The term patent originated from the Latin term literae patentes (letters patent) which means ‘open letters’. The origin of patent law in India can be traced back to the law and practice on patents in the United Kingdom. The Indian Patents Act of 1970 was modeled on the British Patents Act of 1949 as amended. However there exists a stark difference between the Indian Patents Act of 1970 and the British Patents Act of 1949 in the sense that the Indian Act granted product patents for food, medicines and chemicals only from January 1st 2005 unlike the British Act which provided such patents under the 1949 Act and continue to do so.
The term Patent has been defined under Section 2(m) of the Indian Patents Act of 1970. A patent confers on the patent owner or the patentee a negative right to exclude others from working or operating the invention for a limited period of time and hence
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