India escapes Priority Foreign Country listing in 301 report
The US government has “growing concerns” about the environment and enforcement of IP in India but has decided against imposing the strongest possible sanction on it, according to a report released today, April 30.
In its annual Special 301 Report, which assesses US trading partners’ efforts to protect and enforce IP, the US Trade Representative has kept India on its Priority Watch List (PWL) but decided against listing it as the Priority Foreign Country.
The report contains a PWL and a Watch List, identifying the countries that are of concern, as well as occasionally listing a Priority Foreign Country (PFC)—a country about which it has particularly serious concerns.
Ukraine was listed as a PFC last year, the first time a country had been put in that category in seven years.
However, despite calls for India to be listed as a PFC, the government opted to continue “constructive” engagement and keep it on the PWL.
In the report, the USTR said India had made “some limited progress” in improving its weak IP rights legal framework since 2013 but added that in “many areas” challenges are growing.
“There are serious questions regarding the future of the innovation climate in India across multiple sectors and disciplines,” the report said, signalling out patent protection in the pharmaceutical sector and online piracy as areas of concern.
“Many of the submissions made by a wide array of stakeholders in this year’s Special 301 reporting process underscored increasing challenges right holders face, and a number of those submissions sought the strongest censure of India’s IP environment available under Special 301,” the report said.
“The US urges India to take specific actions to address the concerns raised, including by means of constructive bilateral engagement,” it added.
The other countries on the PWL are Algeria, Argentina, Chile, China, Indonesia, Pakistan, Russia, Thailand and Venezuela.
Among the most serious concerns were the protection and enforcement of trade secrets in China.
“These countries will be the subject of particularly intense bilateral engagement during the coming year,” the report said.
The report also highlights music licensing and cable broadcasting concerns throughout the Caribbean that adversely affect US copyright holders. It listed Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago and the Dominican Republic in its Watch List.
More positively, Italy has been removed from the Watch List “in recognition” of the country’s “long-awaited regulations” to combat copyright piracy over the internet.
Earlier this week, WIPR reported that the Philippines had also been removed from the watch list.
On Ukraine’s inclusion last year, the USTR said collecting societies were administered unfairly and unclearly, that there has been widespread government use of illegal software and that anti-piracy measures were ineffective.
The 2014 report said the USTR “remains committed” to addressing the problems that contributed to Ukraine’s designation as a PFC, and appreciated its “outreach and ongoing engagement”.
