India Quietly Introduces Software Patents

bain_online writes " The Business-Standard of India reports: The Cabinet is expected to clear the promulgation of an Ordinance for the introduction of a product patents regime, which will also cover embedded software and hardware, next Wednesday. There are other news sites reporting the same. Unfortunately, the majority of the Indian people are not the least bit concerned, resulting in very low coverage for this important development."

Comments

Well that and

[LiNKz]

They're busy dealing with this.

Re:Well that and

[LiNKz]

Specifically, they're dealing with this. The first link was more generalized.

First wave of software patents

[Gopal.V]

Patent office of India has a section in Patent Law (rev 1998), which states

1.3.8 Computer Programs
1. Computer program is not patentable invention as computer program is
a set of instructions for controlling a sequence of operations of a dataprocessing
system. It closely resembles a mathematical method .It
may be expressed in various forms eg. A series of verbal statements, a
flow chart, an algorithm, or other coded form and may be presented in
a format suitable for direct entry into a particular computer, or may
require transcription into a different format (or computer “language”). It
may merely be written on paper or recorded on some machine-readable medium such as magnetic tape or disc or optically scanned
record, or it may be permanently recorded in a control store forming
part of a computer. Thus it is evident that a program may be presented
in terms of either software or firmware.

With such a clear law stating about firmware, how can patents be applicable to embedded systems ?. The normal programmer need not fear yet. But this is just the first wave.

An invention consists of hardware along with software or computer
program in order to perform the function of the hardware ,such
invention may be considered Patentable

Maybe this is the clause they are exploiting ?.

I'm mailing my ministers immediately !!... If you are an Indian, do the same immediately.

Re:First wave of software patents

[Halo1]

With such a clear law stating about firmware, how can patents be applicable to embedded systems ?

Keep in mind that this is about a rewrite of the patent law.

I'm mailing my ministers immediately !!... If you are an Indian, do the same immediately.

You might find some interesting background information here.

Lack of interest?!?!

[FreeLinux]

Imagine, the Indian people aren't interested in the patent issue. Could it have anything to do with the fact that 3000 or more people were killed by a tsunami?

If I were in India, I wouldn't be to concerned with patents right now either.

It was the same in Europe...

[Rauchbier]

The patent lobby tried to introduce software patents in Europe silently as well. Thanks to the FFII there was enough noise to wake up politicians. Now we have additional support from sites like No Software Patents, but it took a lot of time to get this support.

Hopefully there is a chance to postpone the decision so the indian people and politicians can catch up on software patents.

Re:Probably got other things on their mind

[savagedome]

Please mod parent up. Please.

How many people remember Michael Jordan's comeback announced on 9/11?

I am happy that nobody is giving a crap about patents right now with the kind of destruction that happened. It would have been sad if patents were given more importance admist all that is happening right now.

The Intellectual Property Law of China

[westlake]

It seems that the only country left who don't want patents is China

For an introduction to the intellectual property law of China: Ministry of Science and Technology: Laws and Regulations Patents, Trademarks, Copyrights, etc. Why does it always come as a surprise on Slashdot when an international trader brings it's laws into synch with it's major trading partners?

It's not Software that worries me.

[Kream]

The current dispensation in India has come to power with the support of leftist parties, who, along with commentators, non-governmental organisations and members of civil society organisations oppose the promulgation of this ordinance or the enactment of the Patents Amendment Act for a major reason.

Medicines.

With the establishment of this ordinance, which will expire after a time and have to be reintroduced as a bill in Parliament, medicines in India, including lifesaving ones, will cost up to four times to a hundred times more than they do now.

The current government is forced to enact this law under it's obligations under the WTO's TRIPS. However, the draft Bill not only fails to use the flexibility available within the TRIPS Agreement but also goes beyond TRIPS. In other words, the draft Bill proposes patent protection more than what is required under TRIPS.

Civil society organisations believe that draft Bill provisions would give monopoly rights to pharmaceutical companies at the cost of accessibility and availability of drugs under the product patent regime. It's worth noting here that the Right to Health is a Fundamental Right under the Indian Constitution.

Here's a link which details the situation. Here's a fact sheet on the issue of Generic Drugs as well as a document called the Myths and Realities of the Pharmaceutical Industry that the European Generic Medicines Association has prepared. The movement against the amendment in the law is being spearheaded by the Affordable Medicines and Treatment Campaign. Here's a letter to the Prime Minister of India that you can send if you wish to help out as well as one letter to the Chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission.

What bothers me is that when asked to bend before Intellectual Property Rights, we have begun to crawl. Aniruddha "Karim" Shankar

baaaaaaa

[Anonymous Coward]

Lets face it, most people just aren't very bright.

I am sure that most people have a very high potential to be bright...but the vast majority of people don't actualize it.

This makes them (and hence us) vulnerable to being controlled by the selfish powers that be (government and big business).

The end result is the same as it ever was: most of the people work hard most of the time without getting most of the rewards.

Personally, I think this is unfortunate.

Re:Really?

[Pratiz]

This is an ordinance not a law. By Indian Constitution an ordinance must get an approval from the parliament before it can become a law. An ordinance has a lifespan of six months. It has to get an approval from the next parliamentary session (Feb - Mar 2005)

AFAIK there are serious differences even among the ruling coalition about the patent issues, but the media coverage has been mainly on the pharma and biotech patents.

Re:Another one bites the dust

[Laser Lou]

To file a patent you need a lawyer, which costs money, then you need more money to defend your patent. A patent in North America costs about 20K USD, and in Europe 40K Euro's. The only "little" people who can do this are lawyers themselves.

That's quite wrong! Where did you get those figures from? I had a teacher who filed patents for himself every few years, and made money from them. You can file one yourself; a lawyer or even a patent agent is not required. In the US it costs $75 for a small entity to file for an utility patent with three claims, $250 for the pantent search, $100 for the examination fee, and $700 to issue the patent. See the fee schedule.

Re:Another one bites the dust

[SerpentMage]

You are right in theory. Try defending your "hand written" patent in a court of law! Been there, done that, and got the t-shirt. You need a lawyer, if you have anything worth patenting for larger sums of money.

But I am glad you point this out. The original intent was to allow the little person to profit from patents. However, the legions of lawyers will make mince meat of you if you try to defend your patent. So what do big companies do? Simple, "I will pay you X and you give me the patent". If you try to say no they will bury you in the courts.

FYI

[Anonymous Coward]

Just finished sendin the mail to the President of India, regarding the Ordinance to amend Patent Act.

To make your voice heard:
President email ID: presidentofindia@rb.nic.in
or
you can use the form at http://presidentofindia.nic.in/scripts/writetopres ident.jsp

Re:Another one bites the dust

[SgtChaireBourne]

If Ford had just stolen his idea then what could he have done? How much would it have cost him to take any action?

Apparently defending a patent costs somewhere over $4 million on average. You can hear a discussion of problems like that at the program page from the Software patent conference Nov 9-10, 2004 in Brussels.