India Leads Developing Countries In IPR Struggle

A n international meeting in India earlier this month on intellectual property, foreign investment and emerging issues from the World Trade Organization has declared that it will establish an International Forum of Parliamentarians, which will form strong and united opposition to the "new colonialsim" that is coming out of the World Trade Agreement through the Trade-Related aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPs) and Trade-Related Issues of Investment (TRIMs).

The meeting was attended by representatives of non-governmental organizations, research and health care institutes, members of parliament, academics and international legal experts from developing countries, and some from the developed world, and was called ahead of the ministerial WTO meeting that is due to take place in Singapore in December to examine TRIPs and trade and investment, among other issues.

India, a signatory to the WTA in Marrakesh, is currently being pressurized, particularly by the USA, to amend its patent legislation - which dates from 1970 - to include product patent protection. A bill of amendments was put forward in the last session of parliament but, having passed through the lower house, was blocked in the upper house. The new session of parliament is to open soon, and Indian delegates at the meeting were confident that the bill will not be passed in the new session.