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Opposition clears Patents Amendment Bill

The Patents (Second) Amendment Bill, 1999 was cleared by the Opposition, on Wednesday, for discussion in Rajya Sabha (on Thursday) and Lok Sabha (on Tuesday).

At a meeting in New Delhi, the Opposition decided to okay the Bill provided the government gave assurances of introducing a third Patents Amendment Bill focussing on product patents.

Product patenting will have to be put in place by 2004 and it is feared in some circles that the executive order for this purpose may not come and, therefore, there would be a need for a third amendment, sources said.

The Opposition has also sought minor "linguistic" amendments regarding remuneration, the sources said.

The meeting held in Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pramod Mahajan's chamber was attended among others by Biplab Das Gupta, Rupchand Pal, both Communist Party Marxist, Congress members Mani Shankar Aiyer and Pranab Mukherjee, and Bharatiya Janata Party's L M Singhvi.

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