TWN Info Service on Intellectual Property Issues (Nov06/08)

28 November 2006

Indian patent database launched

India’s generic medicine manufacturers are a major supplier of affordable medicines to countries throughout the world.  These manufacturers were able to produce generic medicines in India until 1/1/2005 due to India’s legitimate non-recognition of product patents on pharmaceuticals. However, under the World Trade Organization’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), India has had to allow pharmaceutical product patents from 1 January 2005. 

India has gradually been granting product patents on medicines since then, however it has been difficult to determine which medicines are patented in India and which medicines there are patent applications for. If there is no patent on the medicine in India, generic companies in India can make generic versions and export them. If it is patented in India, it will be difficult for companies to make generic versions in India unless the generic company qualifies for the exception (for companies that were enterprises which have made significant investment and were producing and marketing the medicine before 1/1/2005 and which continued to manufacture the product covered by the patent on the date of grant of the patent) or receives a compulsory licence. (Exporting more than 50% of the production under compulsory licence would require use of the 6/12/2005 TRIPS amendment (or 30 August 2003 Decision). Therefore it is important to know whether a given medicine is patented in India.

A free searchable database of Indian patents and patent applications has been launched. It makes the data from India's patent journals from January 2005 searchable which includes applications and patents published from January 2005 onwards (including the "mailbox" applications) and is updated weekly. This means the database contains all the pharmaceutical product patent applications and grants in India. (It also has applications and grants for patents on other types of products (eg machinery) for this period).

However the database does not contain the full application/claims etc for each patent. Given the search mechanism for the database at this stage, the best way to use it is to search by the name of the patent holder (eg browse 'G' for GlaxoSmithKline, then check each of its entries and use other free patent databases (eg for USA and European Union) to get the rest of the information. A user manual should be posted to the database's website soon.

The database can be found at http://india.bigpatents.org

Best wishes,
Third World Network