IPR IMPACTS ON BIOLOGICAL RESEARCH IN INDIA

History of ipr in India

On February 28, 1856, the Government of India promulgated legislation to grant what was then termed as "exclusive privileges for the encouragement of inventions of new manufactures" i.e the Patents Act. On March 3, 1856, a civil engineer, George Alfred DePenning of 7, Grant’s Lane, Calcutta petitioned the Government of India for grant of exclusive privileges for his invention - "An Efficient Punkah Pulling Machine". On September 2, DePenning, submitted the Specifications for his invention along with drawings to illustrate its working.These were accepted and the invention was granted the first ever Intellectual Property protection in India.

IMPACT ON AGRICULTURE

IMPACT ON AGRICULTURE

IMPACT ON LIFE SCIENCE

Pressures of globalisation or internationalisation were not intense during 1950s to 1980s, and many countries, including India, were able to manage without practising a strong system of IPR.Globalization driven by chemical, pharmaceutical, electronic, and IT industries has resulted into large investment in R&D. This process is characterized by shortening of product cycle, time and high risk of reverse engineering by competitors. Industries came to realize that trade secrets were not adequate to guard a technology.

It was difficult to reap the benefits of innovations unless uniform laws and rules of patents, trademarks, copyright, etc. existed. That is how IPR became an important constituent of the World Trade Organization (WTO).Traditional medicine dealing with natural botanical products is an important part of human health care in many developing countries and also in developed countries, increasing their commercial value.The world market for such medicines has reached US $ 60 billion, with annual growth rates of between 5% and 15%.

Patents provide important incentives for innovation and disclosure in the life sciences and play a key role in licensing and commercialization activities across the university-industry boundary .Life science companies can strategically use their intellectual property assets to generate revenue in a number of different ways including licensing their IP and developing joint ventures and strategic alliances. Venture capitalists place a high value on strategic alliances and joint ventures as they provide an opportunity to demonstrate the validity of the science and its commercial potential.

Currently bioinformatics is largely handled by protecting, then sharing information. For continued advances access to sequenced data is critical. In the mid 1990s, the interactive communication technology, i.e., the ‘Internet technology’ became widely available for public use. This has been a major stimulus to in modern day genomics. The World Wide Web provided the means to share and integrate databases, distribute software, and perform sophisticated analyses. Currently, there are at least 400 internet-accessible databases of biological data and about 20 applications software to analyze sequence data. The human genome project relied heavily on sharing of information and knowledge including the information held by private sector. This knowledge-based revolution can drive agricultural research for the benefit of all.The human genome project has led to the production of a wealth of information that clearly will have added value in areas of animal science. Likewise development of vaccines and other treatments for diseases will benefit animal science researchers.