Skip to main content

Since 2011 – for a period of more than two years – the weakest intellectual property legislation in relation to the world of chemistry, i.e. patent law in relation to pharmaceuticals and chemical substances, showed a renewed promise in India.

From 1972 when the Patents Act, 1970, came into force to 2005, there was no product patent regime for pharmaceutical or chemistry patents. Innovator drug companies or those in agro-chemicals suffered. On account of TRIPS, the law changed and product patent protection was introduced with effect from February 1, 2005.

The question was, would the regime really strengthen, or was it going to be an eyewash? For this, one needs to examine the number and quality of patents granted for pharmaceuticals and agro-chemicals post 2005, the cumulative effect of pre- and post-grant oppositions in preventing a patent from being finally granted; and the success of infringement actions and the history of counter-claims and revocation actions. This article will examine the last of these aspects.

Authored by Pravin Anand.

This article was published in IP Era in 2015.

Read more

Most Recent

News & Insights

VIEW ALL
News & Updates
Aug 25, 2025

At the FICCI–ICRIER Conference on SEPs (23rd August 2025), our Managing Partner Mr. Pravin Anand shared his vision on how India can evolve from being

Conference on Standard Essential Patents (SEPs)
News & Updates
Aug 24, 2025

‘Intellectual Property for a company/ creator is as critical and important as human rights for an individual,’ this guiding belief at ANAND AND ANAND

IAM Strategy 300
Thought Leadership
Aug 21, 2025

‘First published on IAM’ By:  Vaishali R Mittal Patent examination by the Indian Patent Office (IPO) has slowed down dramatically over the last few

Patent examination slowdown risks harming India’s IP momentum
Thought Leadership
Jul 28, 2025

‘First published on Asia IP’ By: Pravin Anand In the book What is Life, written in 1944 by theoretical physicist Erwin Schrödinger, the author states: “A

Human versus machine consciousness