India's Mashelkar report in "plagiarism" claim

The author of a report into India's patent law, which was commissioned by the country's government, has asked for his committee's work to be withdrawn because of alleged plagiarism. RA Mashelkar, a noted intellectual property expert, had been asked to report on the operation of India's 2005 Patent Law, in particular section 3(d). This is the subject of a judicial battle between Swiss drug major Novartis and the Indian government over whether the clause is compatible with India's obligations under the World Trade Organization's Agreement on trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs).

India's The Hindu newspaper has reported that Dr Mashelkar described the plagiarism as "eight to 10 lines" that were incorrectly drafted by a committee subgroup. Local reports claim that the passage was taken from a document published in November 2005 by the London-based think-tank, the Intellectual Property Institute, which is partly-funded by research-based drug firms.

Opponents of changes to the law claim that, under the Doha declaration on the TRIPs Agreement and Public Health, there is enough latitude for the Indian government to restrict patent issue beyond the TRIPs standard of "novelty, commercial applicability and non-obviousness," which Novartis is disputing.