-The Indian Express "If we did not have a patent system, it would be irresponsible, on the basis of our present knowledge of its economic consequences, to recommend instituting one." So said Fritz Machlup, a wise American economist several decades ago. His words remain as true now as they were then. For, the patent system is one of the most faulty legal regimes that one could possibly have conceived. It purports...

-The Hindu Business Line Seek clarification on US trade representative's testimony that India has committed to address IP issues that concern America Mumbai: Has India informally agreed to make changes in its Intellectual Property Rights regime on the basis of US concerns? A sizeable section of the Indian pharmaceutical industry and some pro-health groups are worried that it has, following US Trade Representative Ambassador Michael Froman's testimony to the Senate Committee on...

-The Hindu Are political advertisements in newspapers on the day of an election legally permissible? India's leading political parties appear to be operating in a legal grey area, a position of ambiguity that they themselves have perpetuated. Section 126 of the Representation of People Act (1950) prohibits political parties from taking out television ads from 48 hours before an election. It does not, however, explicitly mention the print media. The relevant...

-The Hindu Business Line Article 66A of the Information Technology Act has no place in a free and democratic society If everybody who ever offended anybody - intentionally or otherwise - is to be locked up, then half the country would be behind bars. It is astonishing, therefore, that provisions in the law which mandate precisely such an outcome for offending someone - without, moreover, even defining what exactly is meant by...

-The Hindu Business Line   A device that literally makes light of the rice parboiling process Bhuvani Devi, a frail-looking woman in her early thirties, has taken up a new challenge - to produce a tonne of parboiled rice in Baarwan village in Jharkhand's Deoghar district. Unlike what the region's paddy farmers did until now, she wants to process and sell parboiled rice rather than paddy itself. "We used to sell paddy at...