Is the patent law justifiable?

Every year about a million patents are taken worldwide.

According to Jayati Ghosh, teacher of Economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi):

It is usually argued that a strict system of patenting is nescessary to encourage innovation and technological advancement, even though there is no hard empirical evidence that supports such a contention. The new patents regime that has emerged from the TRIPS agreement of the Uruguay Round of GATT is based on this belief, and it has imposed a uniform system of patent laws on countries with very different conditions and requirements. There are several reasons why this works against the interests of developing countries like India.

The most important reason is that it is likely to inhibit the potential for domestic