Continuing Problems with India's Patent System

C.H. Unnikrishnan reports on livemint.com that India's patent system continues to suffer from legal ambiguity, too few examiners, and piles of complaints.  India's current patent law, passed in 2005, was supposed to bring the Indian system into line with World Trade Organization standards.  The law did make some improvements, but almost immediately spawned litigation as companies tested its boundaries. 

Brain League IP Services of Bangalore has compiled data relating to 18,461 complaints to the Comptroller General of Patents, Designs and Trademarks in 2007.  C.H. Unnikrishnan, author of the livemint.com article, ponts out four areas of ambiguity in the 2005 law:
- Patentability of modified drug formulations
- Importation of drugs manufactured in least developed countries
- Compulsory licensing
- Time limits in post-grant opposition rules

Of course, all patent legal systems suffer from ambiguities.  The U.S. system, for example, continues to wrestle with the limits to patenting software and business methods. 

Unnikrishnan also suggests limited numbers of examiners at India's four patent offices (New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai) as a partial explanation for the large number of complaints.     

See also: "Is India's Patent Infrastructure in Trouble?"

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The U.S. system, for example, continues to wrestle with the limits to patenting software and business methods.