Mashelkar panel gets three months to review its patent laws report

Mumbai: The government has asked the expert group set up under CSIR chief R A Mashelkar to re-examine its report on patent law issues and remove the inaccuracies. The government has given the group three months for resubmitting the report, Ashwani Kumar, minister of state for industry, said.

"The government has agreed to allow the expert group to remove technical inaccuracies in the report," the minister told the Lok Sabha in a written reply.

He said the group was set up to examine whether patents should be granted to a 'new chemical entity' or 'new medical entity', involving one or more inventive steps.

The group was also asked to examine whether it would be compatible with the TRIPS agreement of the WTO to exclude 'microorganisms' from patenting.

Kumar said reports regarding plagiarism in the report had surfaced in the media and the chairman of the group had sought government approval for withdrawal and review of the report.