From: sasthana@cirrus.com (Sunil Asthana)
Subject: Re: Of U.S. And Indian Patent Laws. India's Is More Progressive.
Organization: Cirrus Logic Inc.  Fremont, California
Date: Thu, 7 Jan 1993 21:12:19 GMT

In article <1idd0mINNdkn@charnel.ecst.csuchico.edu> vivek@ecst.csuchico.edu (Vivek R. Prabhu) writes:
>This is in response to the discussion about the different Patent Laws
>operating in India as well as the U.S..
>
>The U.S. Law, that enforces both the Process,  as well as the Product
>protection policy, is in fact a retrogade act.  In comparison the one
>in India is far more progressive. 
>
>I shall give an example,  quoting from what one nettor had previously
>stated. Suppose 2 companies X and Y are in the process of developing,
>two products, for the same purpose.  Now lets suppose that, company X
>uses a process A, and company Y uses a process B. Of the 2 processes,
>process B is markedly more efficent, in the sense,  that it helps the
>product to have certain qualities which are better than the qualities
>imparted to the product by the process A, which however is faster. In
>such a case, if company X, comes out first with the product, and gets
>a Patent for it in the name of both the Product, and its process A  &
>company Y, is refused the right to manufacture the product, simply on
>the grounds that it was slightly late,  then what do we have?  A kind 
>of situation, where a better product is being denied to us and we the
>consumers, being forced to buy an inefficient product, from a company
>that has had the benefit, of just getting to the finish line first. I
>would definitely feel that the Patent law is being unfair to me.
>
>In practice, this situation, has indeed taken place.  This was with a 
>recent case, that had taken place in India about the Jaipur Limb. The
>Jaipur Limb, as most Indians know, is an artificial limb, made in the
>state of Rajasthan, by an ex-Indian Army officer, who was disabled in
>one of thew wars. This limb, works almost like a natural limb, and is
>very comfortable to wear, and is very robust in its construction. The
>cost of the limb in India is perhaps in the few hundreds at the most,
>and a product similar to it, but far less eficient, and much far less
>robust is manufactured by Du Pont. This product costs, about US $400.
>When Du Pont saw the Jaipur limb,  being used in India,  so much more 
>easily, and in such a large quantity,  it began to try and pressurize
>action, much like what Burroughs Welcome tried to.  However, once the
>Discovery Channel proved that the Jaipur Limb was made from a totally
>indigenous Indian technology, Du Pont had to beat a retreat. Now tell
>me, should the U.S. Patent law have been used against India or not??
>Similarly, if the Indian Company,  has produced the AZT drug,  from a 
>process completley different from that used by B-W, then,  the Patent
>Law,  as it is applied in the U.S., is totally a weapon of injustice.
>
>Another case, to point is that of the AWACS technology that India has
>been successfull in developing. The Indian version of the AWACS, also
>known as ASWAC and which stands for Airborne Surveillance and Warning 
>Control System, has been totally developed indigenously at the Indian
>Research installations, at Trivandrum, and Bangalore. If now the U.S.
>uses the same hackneyed argument about its patent law, being violated
>then it is again, doing something illegal. The U.S. patent law,  thus
>subsidizes Monopoly, and breeds inefficency, and is used as a tool by
>the Corporations,  to garner market share,  and not provide a service 
>to consumers.
>
>Comments from nettors are welcome.
>
>Regards,
>Vivek.
>


Hi Vivek:

You have truely brought the out the point. I hope to see some more articles
like these.

Sunil Asthana