India should demand review of TRIPS: Isaac

KOCHI: India should demand the review of TRIPS, a move which will be supported by a large number of countries especially in the sectors of common property patents and the pharmaceutical sector, Finance Minister T M Thomas Isaac has said.

Delivering the World Intellectual Property Rights Day address at the Inter-University Centre for Intellectual Property Rights Studies (IUCIPRS), Cochin University of Science and Technology, he said there was scope for interaction among these countries but no sufficient pressure is being put by them to protect their rights.

"What we demand is a just, fair, balanced IPR and patenting system to balance the interests of the innovator with the interests of the public," Isaac said.Over the years, there is a fundamental change in the ruling class and the nature of economy, he said. It has become a system where capital keeps away from production but extracts a share in surplus profits. This is done by the financing institutions.

Under the new IPR regime, a whole variety of Property Rights come under one umbrella. However, one needs to debate whether such IPR is needed for sectors like creation of knowledge, Isaac said. He bemoaned the fact that the manuals for IPR were being written by US experts and not in Indian context.

"An MoU has been signed with American agencies to train personnel in IPR. So the whole system is being tuned to fit US' conditions and not in our circumstances," Isaac said.Presiding over the function, Cusat ViceChancellor Ramachandran Thekkedath said the IUCIPRS is an experimental centre which will research on how patents can be made socially responsible.

N S Gopalakrishnan, professor, HRD chair on IPR, welcomed the gathering and spoke on the importance of World IP day.