The government is planning to set up a series of patent training institutes in the country, to meet the challenges and opportunities likely to be posed by the new regime.

India is poised to amend its Patent Act, 1970 for the third time in succession to make it TRIPS-consistent. The amended law will come into effect from January 1. In this context, Union minister for science and technology Kapil Sibal has expressed regrets that the country does not have a single patent training institute while China has already set up 5,000.

Such institutes are necessary as "judicious management of patent information will require well-structured functioning of information-creating centres, information documenters and retrievers, information users, IPR specialists and information experts," he said.

Inaugurating the 18th national conference on in-house R&D in industry, organised jointly by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) and the department of scientific and industrial research (DSIR) here on Tuesday, the minister, however, assured that new admendments would ensure that the industry had "a competitive advantage within the context of WTO."

He said that the new law would mark "a paradigm shift."

He also consoled the industry that the new regime was likely to present more opportunities than threats. "We must so design it to give ourselves a world-class IP regime. At the same time the government has a duty to protect public interest. We will put in place a model act for other developing countries to emulate," he said.

Mr Sibal urged the industry to develop skills to meet new challenges. "Our dreams of becoming an IT super power will hopefully be soon realised," he said.

He also admitted the performance of the pharma industry but cautioned them that they could be competitive if they developed new molecules.

"So far the pharma industry has survived without developing new molecules. Indeed, only 14 new molecules have been developed so far in last 40 years, out of which credit for 11 goes to the Council for Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR)," he said.

He complimented CSIR for showing the way to the nation. CSIR secured 196 US patents in 2003 and they have constantly been on top three positions in the select 50 PCT filing list brought out by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO).

It has maintained a share of 30% to 40% in the share of the US patents granted to Indians residing in India.

On the occasion, agriculture commissioner CD Mayee cautioned that manufacturers of generic drugs would be required to withdraw some of their products as 13 applications for exclusive marketing rights had been filed in the mail box. However, these cases are under litigation, he said.

Mr Mayee added that the new bill incorporating the recommendations of the group of ministers (GoM) would be tabled in the winter session of Parliament.

The government will issue guidelines along with the amendments.

The issue of data protection is currently being considered by an inter-ministerial committee headed by the chemicals and petrochemicals secretary.