The recent amendment to the Patent Act, 1970 brings India into full compliance with its obligations under the Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights agreement, in particular allowing for product patents in the area of pharmaceuticals and agri-chemicals. This amendment, the third to the 1970 Act, was characterised by a relatively muted rhetoric and a remarkable level of shared consensus amongst campaigners and critics. Focusing largely on domestic compulsions, as opposed to the global, the paper explores whether the shared consensus sets too narrow an agenda for patent reform. The paper suggests that the limits to implementing TRIPs are equally on account of ambivalence within the government with respect to intellectual property and the changing self-interest of sections of Indian pharma. Thus, despite a favourable international climate in the area of intellectual property (read Seattle, Doha and Cancun), patent reform in India has been doubly constrained by the narrow agenda and domestic factors.
