IP safety: US places India on Priority Watch List

The United States on Friday positioned India and eight different international locations on the Priority Watch List for IP safety and enforcement.
The different international locations which have been placed on the record are Argentina, Chile, China, Indonesia, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Ukraine and Venezuela.
In its “Special 301 Report” on the adequacy and effectiveness of US buying and selling companions’ safety and enforcement of mental property rights, US Trade Representative Katherine Tai stated these international locations would be the topic of intense bilateral engagement in the course of the coming yr.
“Over the past year, India has remained inconsistent in its progress on intellectual property (IP) protection and enforcement. While India’s enforcement of IP in the online sphere has gradually improved, a lack of concrete benefits for innovators and creators persists, which continues to undermine their efforts. India remains one of the world’s most challenging major economies with respect to protection and enforcement of IP,” she stated.

The workplace of the USTR reviewed greater than 100 buying and selling companions for this yr’s “Special 301 Report”, and eight on Priority Watch List and 23 on the Watch List.
The 23 buying and selling companions on the Watch List are Algeria, Barbados, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Guatemala, Kuwait, Lebanon, Mexico, Pakistan, Paraguay, Peru, Romania, Thailand, Trinidad & Tobago, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam.
“Intellectual property rights incentivize our creators, manufacturers, and innovators to invent new products and technologies,” stated Katherine Tai.
“The laws, policies and practices that protect those rights must appropriately balance the interests of creators with those seeking to use their creations. Failing to adequately and effectively protect those rights in foreign markets hurts the US economy, the dynamism of American innovators and the livelihoods of our workers,” she stated.
Observing that the 2021 Special 301 assessment interval has taken place in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, the biggest international well being disaster in additional than a century, the USTR workplace stated its high precedence is saving lives and ending the pandemic within the United States and all over the world.
As affirmed within the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health, the United States, whereas recognising the function of mental property safety within the improvement of recent medicines, respects a buying and selling companion’s proper to guard public well being and, particularly to advertise entry to medicines for all, it stated.
The United States has been intently monitoring China’s progress in implementing its commitments beneath the United States-China Economic and Trade Agreement.
In 2020, China revealed a number of draft IP-related authorized and regulatory measures and finalised over a dozen measures.
China amended the patent Law, copyright and legal legal guidelines prior to now yr. However, these steps towards reform require efficient implementation and fall wanting the complete vary of elementary modifications wanted to enhance the IP panorama in China, the USTR workplace stated.
In India, the USTR stated patent points proceed to be of specific concern as long-standing points stay for progressive industries.
The potential menace of patent revocations, lack of presumption of patent validity and the slender patentability standards beneath the India Patents Act burdens firms throughout totally different sectors.
“Moreover, patent applicants continue to confront costly and time-consuming pre and post-grant oppositions, long waiting periods to receive patent approval and excessive reporting requirements. Stakeholders continue to express concerns over vagueness in the interpretation of the India Patents Act,” she added.
She stated the US intends to proceed to have interaction with India on IP issues, together with via the United States-India Trade Policy Forum’s Intellectual Property Working Group.