Abstract

A controversial intellectual property-ownership bill modeled on the US Bayh-Dole Act of 1980, has been approved by India’s Union Cabinet, and is currently being considered in the Indian Parliament. It bears noting, that while the US Bayh Dole legislation has been praised by many, it has been subject to scathing criticism by others. This paper addresses the question of whether a US legislation that dealt with specific issues with some success can be ‘imported’ into the Indian context. Furthermore, this cross-border emulation of such economic and technology policies is a matter of grave concern. It seeks to analyze all these concerns with close focus on the economic aberrations like that of the ‘tragedy of anticommons’, created in the biomedical research sector. The underlying objective of the paper will be to trace the impact of the Bayh-Dole Act in the last three decades and to analyze the appropriateness of its emulation in India.