Terminator patent filed 3 years ago

NEW DELHI, Dec 28: Unknown to many, the terminator gene patent'' has actually been filed in India. A recent patent search by the Depart...

NEW DELHI, Dec 28: Unknown to many, the “terminator gene patent” has actually been filed in India. A recent patent search by the Department of Science & Technology found that it was filed way back in November 1995 in the Chennai patent office. Terminator is the popular name given to a US patent titled “Control of gene expression” and this recent search on the Indian database revealed that a patent by the same name has been filed by the “United States of America as represented by the Secretary of Agriculture.”

A private company Delta & Pine Land and the American agriculture department are joint patent holders of this controversial technology. By using this technology – which is still some years away from actual commercial application – seed companies can ensure that a seed will fail to germinate after one crop has been harvested, literally forcing farmers to buy fresh seeds year after year.

The patent application number 1175/Mas/95 is currently sitting unexamined in a “mailbox mechanism” that wascreated as part of the World Trade Organization’s minimum requirements that India was forced to create. When contacted, the US Embassy said “they have no information on this patent application.” Whether this application is likely to be accepted or not is a different matter and widely differing views are being put forward. R A Mashelkar, Director General of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research and a known authority on intellectual property rights feels “there is absolutely no need to worry as enough safeguards have been put in place to ensure that terminator does not enter India.”

But Suman Sahai of the Gene Campaign, an opponent of the Patents Bill, says that once India’s patent laws are fully compatible with WTO requirements, there is “no way anyone can stop this patent being invoked in India.”