Intellectual property: India features yet again on U.S.’ ‘priority watch list’
HMIL will start operating the recently acquired GM plant in Pune in the second half of next year. The Pune plant is currently being upgraded to create a production hub capable of building more than 2,00,000 units annually, using smart manufacturing technology and systems, the Korean car maker said in a statement.
The U.S. has once again included India in the ‘priority watch list’ of countries, along with China, Russia, Venezuela, and three others, for alleged problems related to IP protection and enforcement, and has said there will be particularly intense bilateral engagement on the matter during the coming year.
There has been progress under the U.S.-India Trade Policy Forum in addressing issues of trademark infringement investigations and pre-grant opposition proceedings, but numerous long-standing concerns remain, per the U.S. Trade Representative’s 2024 Special 301 report released on Thursday.
‘High online piracy’
“These include inadequate IP enforcement, including high rates of online piracy, an extensive trademark opposition backlog, and insu¯cient legal means to protect said.
Among other things, India still needs to fully implement the WIPO Internet Treaties and ensure that copyright statutory licences do not extend to interactive transmissions,” the report added.
The USTR releases the Special 301 Report annually, highlighting the state of IP protection and enforcement regimes in various countries it trades with.
India has been on the ‘priority watch’ list of trade secrets,” it countries for many years, which, according to the USTR o¯ce, indicates that serious problems exist in the country concerning IP protection, enforcement, or market access for Americans relying on IP.
India’s stance
New Delhi, however, has always maintained that its intellectual property laws were in strict adherence to the WTO’s Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement and that it was not bound by any global rules to make changes in its laws.
No action is threatened by the U.S. against countries on the ‘priority watch list’, but if a country slips further and is categorised a ‘priority country’, Washington may impose ‘retaliatory’ measures. Indonesia, Chile, and Argentina are the other countries on the ‘priority watch list’.
Other trading partners
Twenty trading partners are on the ‘watch list’, including countries that the U.S. believes merit bilateral attention to address underlying IP problems but are better than the ‘priority watch list’ countries.
Algeria, Barbados, Belarus, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Colombia, Ecuador, Egypt, Guatemala, Mexico, Pakistan, Paraguay, Peru, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Türkiye, Turkmenistan, and Vietnam are on the ‘watch list’.
(The writer is with The Hindu businessline)