So far patent law in each country is different and patent has to be made separately in each country. Now, the countries that have signed the GATT agreement are required to change they're patent laws to conform to one international patent regime. In fact there are four types of proposed amendments to the Indian Patent legislation: (i) amendments to the Indian Patent Act of 1970 to be carried out by the year 2005 to conform the WTO (World Trade Organisation) guidelines defining the international patent regime (IPR); (ii) pending the comprehensive change, transitional amendments required under the TRIPS (Trade related intellectual property rights) agreement to give immediate effect to provisions of the Exclusive Marketing Rights (EMR) and the setting up of a Mailbox for receiving patent applications. There are two other related amendments: (iii) the proposed bill on bio-diversity, being prepared by the Ministry of Environment to give effect to the international agreement on biodiversity (1992); and (iv) the bill on plant varieties, proposed by the Ministry of Agriculture, mainly to safeguard the interests of plant breeders. In the ensuing budget session, the transitional amendments and other two bills will be placed before parliament.

The most important changes that would be introduced if the patent legislation conforms to the proposed international patent regime are: (a) providing exclusive marketing right to a holder of patent obtained from any of the member country of WTO. It is not necessary to have patent from each country separately. (b) Presently in Indian patent law only process patent is recognised, but now there will be both

Product as well as process patent. This means that, while earlier using the patented process, on the payment of royalty, the product can be produced using indigenous materials at a low cost, but once product patent is recognised, the production and pricing will be dictated by the patent holder company, usually a multinational. (c) Extension of the duration of patent to 20 years period. In the present age quick technological development, as the rate economic obsolation of technology is very high. Extending the duration of patent to 20 years period uniformly for all products and processes is designed to ensure a virtual monopoly of the multinationals. (d) The burden of proof about the non-violation of patent right, a costly legal process, particularly if to be contested in the courts of the developed countries, is placed on the defender. (e) Finally, unlike earlier patent regime patent on life has to be allowed.

These changes will have far reaching consequences on the economy and society of India. However many of these consequences will not be immediate and therefore common people as well as the policy makers are not adequately realising the latent dangers of the changed patent regime. The consequences include (i) the perpetuation of the technological dependence of the developing countries on the developed countries as the technological gap will be increased. (ii) The multinational companies will have an extensive control over our market as a result of the product patent. (iii) The technological progress and industrialisation process in India will be retarded – particularly with respect to drugs and pharmaceutical industries. India is one of the twelve countries rich in biodiversity. The patent on life will led to biopiracy and vigorous commercial exploitation of the biological resources, threatening the reduction in the level of bio-diversity.