Stung by the Bharatiya Janata Party's opposition to the Patents (Third) Amendment Bill, the government is willing to narrow down its differences with the Left on the issue.
Left party sources said a top Cabinet minister had called up the CPI-M leadership and asked the Left to bail the government out so that the Bill could be passed before Parliament went in for its three-week recess on March 25.
The Ordinance on patents is lapsing on April 8 and the government has to get the Bill passed as part of its obligation to the World Trade Organisation.
As part of the compromise formula, the government has agreed to two of the Left's "major" demands on the Bill. While an agreement has already been reached on dropping the clause on excluding embedded software from the patents regime, the government is now willing to go along with the Left on the issue of "new inventions".
Negotiations are continuing on compulsory licensing, pre-grant opposition and excluding drugs introduced in the market during the 10-year period (1995-2005, when the mailbox was operative) from the Patents Ordinance.
The Patents (Amendment) Bill, 2005, introduced by Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath in the Lok Sabha, is the same as the Ordinance promulgated in December, and seeks to provide a product patents regime for pharmaceutical and agriculture products, and embedded software.
A senior ministry official said the government did not change the elements contained in the Ordinance since it was promulgated after presidential assent.
It would, however, keep an open mind on concerns raised by members of Parliament and make changes in the Bill.
Officials in the ministry said the government intended to change some of the definitions, including prefixing inventions with the word "new".
It also intended to specify that "reasonable royalty" would be paid to existing patents holders, they added. The Left had sought that a minimum royalty level be specified in the Bill but officials said the government could not specify a level.
"We are willing to look at all the ambiguities in the Bill, including the issue of compulsory licensing provided the amendments are TRIPS compliant," a senior ministry official said adding that most of the changes proposed by the Left were cosmetic and did not alter the basic principles of the Bill.