Medicines Pool Swirls
Drug companies are slowly joining the UN effort to offer life-saving patented medicines to poor countries but the terms are sometimes restrictive
US trading on thin ice
As Trump escalates the trade war with China, the key question is what constitutes theft of intellectual property
Evergreening rampant in India
India's patent office has ignored the strict safeguards against evergreening and allowed a flood of secondary drug patents
Is safety the real concern?
Fear about safe use of natural refrigerants is more a political agenda and less a concern for safety
Competitive policies
The Ericsson case highlights the uneasy interface between competition policy and patent law
Should life forms be patented globally?
Patents are monopoly rights granted to the inventors to protect their economic interests. But this becomes complicated when the patent is …
Mass movement against Dunkel draft
Forty-five bodies have joined hands to mobilise protest campaigns against changes in laws which will comply with GATT proposals for a new …
Ours and theirs
An American company appropriates the name 'basmati' as its own, and the contentious issue of patents and protection comes to the fore once again
Losers still
The mad scramble for patenting the magic malaria antidote is seemingly resulting in dishonesty and plagiarism, while Onges, the actual knowledge …
No penny for the Onges?
The discovery of a generation-old plant extract used by Onges in The Andarnans has patent-hungry profiteers jostling their way down There The …
Looks like Basmati but
India is losing the pride of many a pulao -- the aroma and taste of basmati rice. What are scientists and legal experts fighting about?
Protecting the nation's patents
V K GUPTA , director, National Institute of Science Communication (NISCOM), tells VIBHA VARSHNEY how they set about building the Traditional …
Plant protection authority sets right its potato blunder
A public campaign forced it to revoke registration of PepsiCo’s potato variety, but the agency needs to reset its priorities
Small brother is watching you
Private policing of Internet backed by courts is leading to censorship that affects everyone
Rejection of Dunkel proposals is a farce
Observers say the government's rejection of the Dunkel proposals on seed patenting is just an eyewash.
Time for India to take stock
The new trade order ordained by GATT affects India's entire economy. Some consider it a new form of colonialism, but others see it as a bountiful …
Brushing up
India's good old neem tree could be used by industry if it stands by its assurances of research and resources
PIPRA: An attempt to hoodwink the Third World
The ongoing attempts to strengthen intellectual property protection regimes through the Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) …
A price on the living
Environmentalists allege that the European Parliament has sold out to multinational firms by allowing patents on lifeforms
Nature's minor gifts
Even as microbes -silent and efficient behind-the-screen contributors to the ecosystem -continue to revel under the spotlight abroad, in India, …
Patent fears
Scientists in Karnataka are forced by the administration to abandon efforts towards documenting the biodiversity knowledge of indigenous people
Finally, firm no to software patents
The Patent Office has clearly said software patents can only be granted if linked to novel hardware
Gifts of the non-patenters
Inventors like Tim Berners-Lee didn't apply for patents on their innovations, leaving enduring benefits for all of us
Winds of changes
Indian industrialists and scientists want the country's property rights to be "strengthened", but the powerful drugs industry wants to maintain …
Beyond 'intelligence'
BEYOND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY: TOWARDS TRADITIONAL RESOURCE RIGHTS FOR INDIGENOUS PEOPLE AND LOCAL COMMUNITIES· Darrell A Posey and Graham …