NEW DELHI, February 8: The terms of reference of the expert panel on Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) are likely to be broad-based, while the panel itself may be enlarged with the inclusion of more members, official sources said today.The expert panel was constituted by the government in September last to evolve a national consensus with just two specific terms of reference to address the patents problems.
The move met with stiff resistance from the opposition parties and also from the Parliamentary Forum for IPR, which vehemently protested the structure of the panel as well as its scope.
The panel itself ran into rough weather with a couple of members, including former foreign secretary Muchkund Dubey, resigning.
`An informal discussion was held to broaden the terms of reference besides inducting more members,' sources said.
`However, before any further action could be taken the election process threw˙everything haywire,' they said.
The expert panel, headed by the scientific advisor to theprime minister, was expected to evolve the national consensus on the patents issue within a month but till date it has not met even once.
One of the main reasons for the Parliamentary Forum on IPR to oppose the panel was that it did not have any political representative in it. `Views of political parties should also be taken into consideration to evolve a national consensus,' BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi had said in a letter to prime minister Inder Kumar Gujral.
The panel was formed soon after the world trade organisation (WTO) complained that India was not fulfilling its commitment in providing patents for pharmaceutical and agro-chemical products. The sources said one major reason for India inviting the WTO criticism was that a bill to amend the Patents Act introduced in parliament two years ago was defeated.`Still, we formulated an administrative mechanism to receive applications for patents and over 1,500 proposals had been received,+ the sources said.
However, developed countries, led by theUnited States, did not accept the mechanism on the ground that it did not provide necessary legal backup. Besides, the developed nations also sought exclusive marketing facility, which India was not in a position to offer now, they added.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
