India, US sign IP rights deal as Trump visit looms
India and the US have signed a preliminary deal to strengthen IP rights, just a few days before a state visit by President Donald Trump, according to a senior Indian government official.
Prakash Javadekar, India’s information and broadcasting minister, said a memorandum of understanding was signed with US officials on Wednesday evening at a cabinet meeting.
According to several media reports, the deal is a “knowledge-sharing agreement”, although no further details were available.
India’s perceived softness on legal protections for IP (particularly within pharmaceuticals) has long been a cause of friction between the two nations.
An April 2019 Special 301 Report from the Office of the US Trade Representative said that several countries, “including Brazil, India, the UAE, and Ukraine, have not addressed the continuing and emerging challenges of copyright piracy”.
The report states that while India has taken steps to address its IP challenges “many of the actions have not yet translated into concrete benefits for innovators and creators and long-standing deficiencies persist”.
For several years, the US has been urging other nations, most recently and most notably China, to strengthen their IP laws and legal enforcement, so as to better protect US-based innovation and inventions.
US officials remain adamant that China is not strong enough on IP protection. For its part, China has long denied US allegations about the weakness of its IP protection system.
Against a backdrop of tense negotiations over a new trade deal, the Chinese government has enacted several reforms over the past year aimed at strengthening its international reputation on IP.
Trump arrives in India on Monday, February 24, for a two-day visit, in an attempt to calm relations between the two nations as they discuss several trade disputes, mainly related to tariffs and dairy products.
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