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The Use of Compulsory Licensing as a Policy to Combat the Monopoly Problem Associated with the Patent System

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This paper examines the use of compulsory licensing as a policy to combat the monopoly problem associated with the patent system. It introduces the notion of an optimal patent-one where the patent life and the licensing royalty rate are both determined optimally. Under certain simplifying assumptions it is shown that the optimal patent will have an indefinite life, for both process and product innovations. Some preliminary calculations suggest that the use of compulsory licensing may lead to substantial welfare improvements, even if the patent life is left unchanged at 17 years.
India has put in place a patent regime that allows the grant of patents for both products and processes for all eligible inventions. The changes made in 1999, 2002 and 2005 have been ostensibly to comply with its WTO ob-ligations on intellectual property. How-ever, an analysis of the changes suggests that there were some in Indian industry and government who believed that stronger patent protection, even beyond what is required under India's international obligations, will attract local R&D as well as foreign direct investment.
It is universally recognized in patent laws that an invention must meet the triple criteria of novelty, inventive step (or be non-obvious) and industrial applicability (or utility) in order to be granted a patent.

NEED FOR PATENT:
In the 2005 amendment, in the case where patent applications were filed in the 'mailbox' between 1995 and 2005, and these were commercially

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