India‘s Use of Patent Opposition Mechanism as an Access to Drugs Strategy: An Empirical Analysis

Abstract

Global public health has emerged as a formidable challenge in modern times. India‘s patent opposition model shows how this legitimate safeguard can be used to alleviatesome of the burden on global health systems by improving access to affordable health technologies. India smartly linked its patentability threshold provisions, Sections 3(d) and 2(ja) of The Patents Act, 1970 (amended in 2005), with its procedural safeguard of patent opposition.This paper presents empirical data on the use of patent opposition procedures in India. The three-step method is adopted to statistically evaluate the practical use of India‘s patent opposition proceedings.Statistical data is collected on 249 patent opposition cases from IP India‘s official websiteto answer and analyse around 150 questions designed to highlight overall trends in the use of the Indian patent opposition mechanism. This paper summarizes the important findings of the statistical data. The main finding of this study is that India‘s well-thought-out patent opposition model has remained under-utilised, especially by non-corporate entities.