 On 9th March 2012, India saw its first grant of Compulsory License, under the Indian Patents Act 1970, to manufacture and sell the drug, Nexavar (Sorafenib tablets). The drug is prescribed for the treatment of Liver and Kidney cancer and the primary inventor (patentee) of the drug being Bayer Pharmaceuticals. The native cost of the drug in India is around Rs. 2,80,428 per Month and Rs. 33,65,136 per year. Due to the heavy costs of the drug and incurring high number of patients, the Indian generic drug company, Natco Pharma (applicant) applied for the grant of compulsory license to manufacture the drug, to the Controller of Patents, Mumbai.
 The Controller General investigated the case based on U/S 84(1)[a, b and c], as follows: a) The reasonable reqirements of the public with respect to the patented invention has not been satisfied: There are approximately 20,000 liver cancer patients and 8900 kidney cancer patients in India, while the sales report submitted by the patentee showed that it only imported tablets that met the need of just 2% of the cancer patients in the country. Despite the fact that the drug has been in Indian market for 4 yrs, the Patentee has not made the drug available in sufficient quantities. b) The patented invention is not available to the public at reasonably affordable price: The average income of an Indian family estimated to be Rs. 60,455/annum, where the price of the drug i.e Rs. 2,80,000 is far fetched for a common man. The exhorbidant price of the drug is thus restaining a common man from using it. c) The patented invention is not worked in India: Nexaver was launched in India in 03-03-2008, but even after 4 yrs of its launch, the patentee did not make any arrangements to manufacture the drug locally. Based on these grounds, Compulsory License was granted to Natco Pharma to manufacture and sell the drug at the price of Rs.8800/- month in India.
This decision given by the Controller General was highly welcomed by the generic companies in India. It also serves as a warning for several multinational pharma companies that hike the prices of the drug and prevent from reaching the needy patients in the country, the patent office would end the monopoly of such patents in order to provide access to medicines. |
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 Yahoo Inc sued Facebook Inc over 10 patents that include methods and systems for advertising on the Web, opening the first major legal battle among big technology companies in social media. The lawsuit, filed in a San Jose, California federal court on Monday, marks a major escalation of patent litigation that has already swept up the smartphone and tablet sectors and high-tech stalwarts such as Apple Inc, Microsoft Corp and Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc.
Infringement of patent happens when any third party makes, uses, sells, offers for sale or imports the patented product in a given territory without consent of the patentee. In the lawsuit, Yahoo says Facebook was considered "one of the worst performing sites for advertising" prior to adapting Yahoo's ideas.
However, in response to being sued by Yahoo for patent infringement last month, Facebook filed counter-claims against Yahoo for infringing 10 of its own patents. Facebook also denied the original claims against it from Yahoo, seeks damages for Yahoo's infringement, and requests a trial by jury. |
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