The Glivec Precedent

This article looks at how inventions are assessed by various policy regimes in the world and analyses the Indian regulations in this light. A well-formulated and scientifi c legislation to apply the inventive step standard could avoid most of the complications caused by Section 3(d) of the Indian Patents Act, which is compatible with the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights Agreement, but about which questions can still be raised.

Bringing together the various aspects of and issues related to the recent Supreme Court judgment rejecting Novartis's patent for Glivec, this writeup introduces a set of articles discussing pharmaceutical patents and their evergreening, Section 3(d) of the Indian Patents Act, as well as the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights Agreement. Even as it does all of this, the write-up places the observations in a wider context that tells a story of lawmaking in the south.