Dr Singh was addressing a workshop of chemical engineering teachers from the region. The workshop was organised at the National Institute of Technical Teachers Training and Research. He spoke on the topic, ‘IPRs: Some issues related to chemical and allied industries’. In his presentation, Professor Daljit Singh focused on some inequities of the present IPR regime, and emphasised that in its present form, the world of IPR and commercialisation of scientific success was largely one-sided and West-dominated, and the major beneficiaries were the large corporations with financial, legal and technical clout. Several NGOs have raised concerns about such a regime, particularly in the field of chemicals and pharmaceuticals, and the impact on food production and healthcare for the poorest segments of society.

Dr Singh emphasised that a fair IPR regime must protect the interests of the innovators and promote greater technology and knowledge development and dissemination. Simultaneously, a fair regime must ensure that the poorest segments of society were not completely deprived of the benefits of technology development and new knowledge.

In this connection, he drew attention to the real estate development models, where, while conceding the rights of the realty developer or landowner, some portion of land is reserved for the general public, in the form of parks, etc. The same principle can, and must be, applied to intellectual property rights also, he said.

The adoption of the proposed model will certainly reduce many of the disputes related to IPRs, as the proposed model protects the legitimate interests of the rights owner, as also the overriding public interest.