印度专利法案激起科学家争论
印度专利法案激起科学家争论
Indian patent bill stirs debate among scientists
[新德里] 印度政府正在讨论一份法律草案，允许政府资助的科学家为他们的研究申请专利和商业化――但是这一立法正在引起该国科学家之间激烈的争论。
[NEW DELHI] The Indian government is to discuss a draft bill allowing government-sponsored researchers to patent and commercialise their work ― but the legislation is generating heated debate amongst scientists.
该法律草案将在未来的两个月内在印度国会进行辩论。它由印度科技部发起，仿照了美国1980年的Bayh-Dole法案，该法案让美国大学和科研机构获得了公共资助研究项目的知识产权。
The draft legislation is to be introduced for debate in the Indian parliament in the next two months. It is spearheaded by the Ministry of Science and Technology and modelled on the United States’ 1980 Bayh-Dole Act, which gave US universities and research institutes intellectual property rights over public-funded research.
该法案称，印度的公共资助的研究常常产生了有可能造福社会的创新，但是它们“在实验室中凋零”，而不是以商业化的方式应用。这归咎于资助机构保留了知识产权，学术机构缺乏把研究商业化的动力，以及缺乏合适的法律框架以完成这种商业化。
The bill states that public-funded research in India has often produced innovations that hold potential for public good, but these have “languished in laboratories” instead of being released commercially. This is blamed on the retention of intellectual property rights by the funding body, a lack of incentives for academic institutes to commercialise research and the absence of appropriate legal framework to accomplish this.
新的立法将寻求通过让科学家获得可能的商业收益的方法从而矫正这一情况。
The new legislation seeks to rectify this by placing the potential for commercial gains in the hands of the researchers.
印度生物技术部的官员协助起草了该法案，他们说该法案将会通过用专利产生资金的方式，促进印度大学和科研机构的创新。
Officials from India’s Department of Biotechnology, which helped draft the bill, say it will promote innovation in Indian universities and research institutes by generating funds through patents.
印度全国研发公司的负责人Somenath Ghosh说，该法案代表了“急需的变革”。该公司帮助各组织和个人把他们的创新商业化。Ghosh告诉本网站说，大多数印度大学几乎不知道需要保护和把知识商业化。没有机制或者激励用于保护知识，而它们的研究网络限制了与工业界的互动。
The bill represents “much-needed change,” according to Somenath Ghosh, managing director of India’s National Research Development Corporation, which helps organisations and individuals commercialise their inventions. Ghosh told SciDev.Net that most Indian universities have little awareness of the need to protect and commercialise knowledge. “There was no mechanism or incentive to protect knowledge and their research networks have limited interaction with industry.”
但是批评者担心该法案通过的速度以及它涉及的保密问题。
But critics are concerned at the speed with which the bill has been processed and the secrecy surrounding it.
这一法案是由印度的国家知识委员会推荐的。该委员会是一个政府顾问组织。但是去年辞去该委员会副主席职务的Pushpa Bhargava说，该委员会没有进行大的公开讨论，而他对建议感到“迷惑”。Bhargava告诉本网站说：“有人想方设法避免关于该法案的公开讨论和争论。”
The bill was recommended by India’s National Knowledge Commission, a government advisory body. But Pushpa Bhargava, who resigned as vice-chairman of the commission last year, says there was no major open discussion at the commission and he was “taken aback” by the recommendation. “Every attempt was made to circumvent an open discussion and debate over it,” Bhargava told SciDev.Net.
印度德里的国立科学技术和发展研究所的科学家Dinesh Abrol说，印度和美国的大学研究非常不同。Abrol说，在美国，政府机构在支持科研院所和大学的研究方面扮演了重要的角色，它们都获得了大量的资助。但是在印度，大多数国立大学获得的资助很少，而且被遗漏在了重大国家研究项目之外。
Dinesh Abrol, a scientist at the National Institute for Science, Technology and Development Studies in Delhi, says that university research in India and the United States are vastly different. In the United States, Abrol says, state agencies play a major role in supporting research involving several institutes and universities, which all receive large grants. But in India, most state universities are poorly funded and left out of major national research projects.
本文由科学与发展网络(SciDev.Net)独家提供
