New Delhi: India has been placed on the Priority Watch List on the US administration’s 2024 Special 301 Report since it remains “one of the world’s most challenging” major economies with respect to the protection and enforcement of intellectual property (IP).
As per a Business Standard report, numerous long-standing problems remain with respect to India like inadequate IP enforcement, including high rates of online piracy, an extensive trademark opposition backlog, and insufficient legal means to protect trade secrets. Further, India still needs to fully implement the WIPO Internet Treaties and to ensure that copyright statutory licenses do not extend to interactive transmissions, United States Trade Representative (USTR) said.
The USTR report added that “there has been progress under the US-India Trade Policy Forum in addressing certain issues with trademark infringement investigations and pre-grant opposition proceedings, numerous long-standing concerns remain,” Business Standard reported.
The countries placed on the 2024 Special 301 Report on the adequacy and effectiveness of US trading partners’ protection and enforcement of IP rights released by USTR “will be the subject of particularly intense bilateral engagement during the coming year,” as per the report.
Besides India, the other countries included in the list are Argentina, Chile, China, Indonesia, Russia and Venezuela.
The USTR report mentioned: “Although India has worked to strengthen its IP regime, including raising public awareness about the importance of IP, and engagement with the United States on IP issues has increased, there continues to be a lack of progress on many long-standing IP concerns raised in prior Special 301 Reports. India remains one of the world’s most challenging major economies with respect to protection and enforcement of IP.”
“Patent issues continue to be of particular concern in India. Among other concerns, the potential threat of patent revocations and the procedural and discretionary invocation of patentability criteria under the Indian Patents Act impact companies across different sectors. Moreover, patent applicants continue to confront long waiting periods to receive patent grants and excessive reporting requirements. Stakeholders continue to express concerns over vagueness in the interpretation of the Indian Patents Act,” it added.
