India Assures USA Over Patents

India has told the USA it will amend its patent laws before the first ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization in Singapore December 9-13.

India's Ministry of Industry said last month that the Patents (Amendment) Bill would be introduced into parliament by September. The government later denied this, saying the bill was still to be considered by the constituent parties of the United Front government. The steering committee of the UP government has now cleared the draft amendment, but it is unlikely that it can come up for adoption before parliament's winter session, which begins towards the end of November.

Last month William Perry, a US investment and trade law expert, told a meeting of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry in New Delhi that if India did not bring its patent legislation into line with international law, this would lead to "considerable" economic loss, and be "detrimental to the country's effort to augment trade with other countries." He also said that India's real international competitor is China, which "has surged ahead of India is almost all fields" and is now "over the horizon."