INDIAN PATENTS NOW COVERED IN DERWENT WORLD PATENTS INDEX
Derwent World Patents Index will now include Indian patents
Philadelphia, PA USA-London UK — April 28, 2005 — Today, the Thomson Scientific unit of The Thomson Corporation (NYSE: TOC; TSX: TOC) announced that Derwent World Patents Index ® (DWPI®) will now include Indian patents, both pre-grant applications and granted patents. The inclusion of Indian patents in DWPI follows the culmination of the government’s long process of amending India’s national patent laws to ensure they conform to Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) norms. Indian patent coverage starts with data published December 4, 2004, so DWPI users will have access to all Indian patent documents issued since the new law took effect. By mid-year, Indian patent data will be available in DWPI within two weeks from publication.
The inclusion of patents granted in India is also significant for DWPI because it is expected that Indian patent activity will increase dramatically, particularly in the fields of pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and information technology. In the past, India only permitted patents for processes and not products. With new amendments to the Patent Act, it is now possible to obtain product patents in pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals, telecoms, and software industries. Total R&D expenditure in India has also considerably increased, leading to new drug development projects and the creation of facilities essential for the development of new drugs.
“Following the recent legislative changes, the number of patent filings is forecast to jump from current annual levels of about 10,000 per year to over 25,000 annually, with a corresponding increase in patent litigation,” said Brian Tyler, executive vice president of corporate markets, Thomson Scientific. “Since India has now become a major player in the IP arena, we recognized the importance of giving our users comprehensive and quick access to Indian patents.”
“Our mission is to aggregate tools and content relevant to the pharmaceutical and chemical markets,” said Ian Tarr, executive vice president, Pharma & Chemical Markets, Thomson Scientific. “Given the importance of the recent change in patent law in India to allow the patenting of products, the expansion of our coverage to include India will be of great importance to Thomson Pharma customers.”
About DWPI
DWPI is the world’s most comprehensive database of value-added patent documents. Currently, DWPI contains details of over 28 million patent documents in 13.5 million unique invention records. More than 1.5 million patent documents from 41 patent-issuing authorities are added to the database each year. The DWPI team of editorial specialists assesses, classify and index these documents to provide concise English language abstracts for effortless searches and comprehension.
Whether a user is interested in patents for their technical content, for business
planning and development, or for protecting the innovations, DWPI provides
the most complete picture possible.
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