[Patents] Patent Bill in India

[Bernard Lang Bernard.Lang@inria.fr]

For information...

   
Note the exclusion of computer programs


From: Gregory Aharonian <srctran@world.std.com>                               
  Date: Mon, 13 Dec 1999 16:55:57 -0500 (EST)                                 
    
from Rinita Sircar  dpahuja@vsnl.com www.dpahuja.com


The following news item is based on preliminary reports. Developments
are expected and further updates will follow.

INDIA

TRIPs Compliance update

IPR Bills pending legislation at the turn of the millennium

1.  The new Patents Bill, which proposes to -

- extend the patent term to 20 years;

- introduce a clause seeking to accord practices based on oral
tradition the status of documented knowledge, thereby rendering
inventions based on such practices non-patentable in India;

- define 'invention' as a new product or process involving an
'inventive step'; the inventive step should not be obvious to one
skilled in the art and be capable of industrial application; and

- exclude from patentability DNA, cells, seeds, essentially biological
processes for production of plants and animals; mathematical or
business methods or computer programmes, any process or product that
causes harm to human, animal or plant life.


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