President gives assent to patents bill

NEW DELHI: The new patents law, which was passed by Parliament in the third week of March, came into force on Tuesday, with President APJ Abdul Kalam giving his assent.

“President Kalam today signed the Patents (Amendment) Bill. With this, the law comes into force,� commerce and industry minister Kamal Nath said on the sidelines of a Ficci meeting with the visiting German delegation.

The Parliament had passed the law to replace the ordinance after incorporating 15 amendments, including the 11 suggested by the Left to provide adequate safeguards to ensure that essential drugs were available at affordable prices.

The new law provides for product patents in pharma and agri-products which were not allowed earlier. The law, which was brought in to fulfil WTO obligations, first came in the form of an ordinance on December 6 last year.

Mr Nath also said a high-level committee of experts would soon be set up to look into some of the issues pertaining to trips in the patents law.

He had promised to constitute the committee during the passage of the legislation in the Lok Sabha following objections raised by Left parties.

On the forthcoming foreign trade policy, Mr Nath said it would lay thrust on the marine and pharma sectors to raise exports to $150bn by ‘09.

Regarding the new scheme to replace the duty entitlement pass book scheme, he said the new scheme has been prepared and inter-governmental consultations were on to finalise it.