Completed Studies
1. Addressing SPS Challenges in India
The WTO Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and phytosanitary
Measures (SPSA) was negotiated with a view to set in place an
array of multilateral rules that would, on the one hand, recognize
the legitimate right of WTO Members to adopt SPS measures
necessary to protect human, animal or plant life or health, and on
the other, would enshrine certain checks and balances to tackle
the possibility of these measures emerging as non-tariff barriers
(NTBs). However, the experiences of developing countries with SPS
requirements imposed particularly by the developed countries bear
testimony to the fact that SPSA has thus far proved rather
ineffective in living up to the latter objective. This is largely
attributable to the fact that, its dual objective notwithstanding,
SPSA has left considerable space for Member countries to use SPS
measures for protectionist purposes under the guise of their
legitimate concerns. This space has been further reinforced by the
mode of interpretation of SPSA by the WTO Dispute Settlement
System. Written against this backdrop, this paper brings to the
fore some of the key SPS challenges facing the developing
countries by taking India as a case in point and explores certain
plausible ways and means to cope with such challenges in an
effective manner.
Click
here to view the Complete Report
2. Socio-economic Implications of
Protecting Geographical Indications in India
Over the recent past, Geographical Indications (GIs) have emerged
as a significant intellectual property rights issue in the Indian
context. Since 15 September 2003, when the Indian GI Act came into
force, more than hundred Indian products have been registered as
GIs. However, there are several practical challenges confronting
the stakeholders in India when it comes to the realization of the
potential benefits ingrained in GIs. Apart from effective
enforcement of the rights in the relevant markets (domestic and
export), success of a GI is contingent, in a large measure, upon
appropriate marketing and promotion of the product – tasks that
are not only resource-intensive but also challenging to execute
for many stakeholders from a developing country like India. It is
all the more tricky to ensure that a fair share of the benefits
accruing from the GI status of a product reaches the actual
producers/artisans downstream the supply chain, unless an
appropriate institutional mechanism is set in place towards that
end. Against this backdrop, the paper attempts to explore the
prospects of India in exploiting the potential benefits embedded
in GIs and the key challenges confronting the country in its
endeavour to realize such benefits.
Click
here to view the Complete Report
3.
Article 39.3 of the TRIPS Agreement: Its Genesis and Present
Context
Article 39.3 of the TRIPS Agreement has assumed considerable
significance during the past few years since the associations of
pharmaceutical majors in the United States and Europe made it a
major plank of their campaign for strengthening the patent laws in
favour of the patentee the world over.
This Article provides that WTO Members would have to provide for
protection of undisclosed test or other data while giving approval
for the marketing of pharmaceutical or agricultural chemical
products, which utilize new chemical entities.
The study dealt with the following issues:
i. Genesis of Article 39.3 of the TRIPS Agreement, the proposals
that were submitted during the Uruguay Round negotiations and the
views expressed therein
ii. Providing an analysis of the dispute between Argentina and the
United States over the inclusion of the provision relating to data
exclusivity in the Argentinean patent law
iii. Examination of the national laws of identified countries in
respect of data exclusivity and providing interpretation and
commentary on their consistency with Article 39.3 of the TRIPS
Agreement
Click
here to view the Complete Report
4.
Relationship between Convention on Biological Diversity and the
Agreement on TRIPS
This study was proposed in the context of the decision taken in
Doha Ministerial Conference to consider the relationship between
the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Agreement on
TRIPS.
The Ministerial Declaration had indicated that work on this issue
should be taken up as a part of the review of Article 27.3(b) of
the TRIPS Agreement.
The dimensions of the CBD-TRIPS relationship have been considered
in detail in the study. The broad set of issues that the study
covers is as under:
i. Identification of the areas of conflict between the Agreement
on TRIPS and the Convention of Biological Diversity
ii. Examination of the possible approaches for the protection of
traditional knowledge and their holders
iii. Assessing the feasibility of benefit sharing arrangements
with the holders of traditional knowledge
Click here to view the Complete Report
5. New patent regime and the
pharmaceutical industry in India
The strengthening of the intellectual property regime that has
taken place with the introduction of the Agreement on TRIPS has
evoked considerable debate in India. The focal point of the
discussions has been the implications of the strengthening of the
patent regime on the prices of medicines. The major concern in
India was that the new patent regime would undermine the interests
of the domestic industry engaged in the production of relatively
cheap generic drugs, and this would throw open the Indian market
to the global pharmaceutical majors.
This study provides an analysis of the implications of the
TRIPS-compliant patents regime for the Indian pharmaceutical
industry. The focus of the study is on the strategies adopted by
the generic industry in India to meet the challenges of the
strengthened patent regime for pharmaceuticals.
Click here to view the Complete Report
6. Domestic Dimensions of Trade and
Investment Liberalisation
