The United States has retained India on its list of most egregious violators of intellectual property rights even though it noted gradual progress in the online sphere. And, it pointed to global concerns about counterfeits of Covid-19 related materials coming from China, including testing kits and masks.
“India has remained inconsistent in its progress on intellectual property (IP) protection and enforcement,” said the US trade representative’s annual Special 301 report for 2021 released on Friday. “While India’s enforcement of IP in the online sphere has gradually improved, a lack of concrete benefits for innovators and creators persists, which continue to undermine their efforts.”
India was among nine US trading partners on the “priority watch list”, which is the category for worst IP violators, according to the United States Trade Representative (USTR). The others are Argentina, Chile, China, Indonesia, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Ukraine and Venezuela.
“These countries will be the subject of particularly intense bilateral engagement during the coming year,” the report said.
Overall, 23 countries are on the “watch list”.
Among other IP issue with China, the report noted global concern with Chinese counterfeiting of Covid-19 related materials. “This past year, countries reported significant quantities of Covid-19 testing kits, personal protective equipment (PPE) such as N-95 and equivalent masks, and sanitisers, detergents, and disinfectants from China that were determined to be counterfeit.”
{{/usCountry}}Among other IP issue with China, the report noted global concern with Chinese counterfeiting of Covid-19 related materials. “This past year, countries reported significant quantities of Covid-19 testing kits, personal protective equipment (PPE) such as N-95 and equivalent masks, and sanitisers, detergents, and disinfectants from China that were determined to be counterfeit.”
{{/usCountry}}The United States has made IP protection and enforcement a key element of trading relations with India and has been pushing it for a long time to do more. “India remains one of the world’s most challenging major economies with respect to protection and enforcement of IP,” said the USTR’s report.
Patents were of “particular concern” because of “potential threat of patent revocations, lack of presumption of patent validity, and the narrow patentability criteria under the India Patents Act burden companies across different sectors”.
The Special 301 report said businesses there is a lack of effective systemic protection against the “unfair commercial use, and unauthorised disclosure, of undisclosed test or other data generated to obtain marketing approval” for pharmaceutical and agricultural chemical products.
IP enforcement is “inadequate” and trademark counterfeiting remains “problematic”, the report noted. And copyright holders continue to report “high levels of piracy, particularly online”.
But India has also made “meaningful progress” in promoting IP protection and enforcement in some areas over the past year, according to report, but “it failed to resolve recent and long-standing challenges, and it created new concerns for right holders”.
Among positive developments, the report noted India’s partnership in the Quad vaccine partnership. India is expected to manufacture 1 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines under partnership funded by Japan and the United States, with Australia taking up the last-mile distribution responsibility. The vaccines are meant for Indo-Pacific region countries.