Mashelkar may still’ve some say

NEW DELHI: The government is favourably considering retaining sections of the controversial report of the technical expert group on patent laws headed by former CSIR director-general R A Mashelkar.

While portions giving ‘acceptable’ suggestions on Indian patent laws compatibility with the Trips might be retained, portions which have been allegedly plagiarised from another report and where suggestions have supposedly been made favouring multinationals are likely to be junked.

Speaking to ET, official sources said that while the department of industrial policy & promotion (DIPP) had not taken a final call on what to do with the report, it was favourably considering retaining parts of the report.

“There are a number of suggestions in the report which are logical and acceptable like the one which says that excluding micro-organisms from patenting is compliant with Trips. It might be a wastage of effort if even such suggestions are rejected,” an official said.

What would be definitely excluded are the controversy mired paragraphs where the report suggests that Trips provisions would be violated if India restricts patent protection to new chemical entities (NCEs) and doesn’t allow incremental innovations to be patented.