Patenting of Life Forms: A Comparative Study of United States and Indian Laws

With the rise of Biotechnology the rise in attempts of owning Intellectual Property Rights over the invented method and products involving living forms has increased across the world. Despite having International Agreements like TRIPS and multilateral supervisory bodies like WIPO and WTO the approach towards the issue is not uniform across the world. Despite such difference in approach certain issues and concerns remain common to all legal systems such as the effect of exclusivity arising from granting of such rights more so in light of the fact that a welfare State has a duty to protect its citizens which involves ensuring right to health and that too at affordable rates which brings into question the unique issues faced by Developing States and third world states which are mostly under developed, in contrast to Developed States. Hence the present study becomes relevant.