[ by Kavita Krishnan ]India and the United States (US) have signed an agreement on intellectual property rights (IPR) ahead of US President Donald Trump’s visit to India. According to Information And Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar, the Cabinet approved an MoU with the US on the issue of IPRs.The United States had long been pushing India to strengthen protection for...
India and the United States (US) have signed an agreement on intellectual property rights (IPR) ahead of US President Donald Trump’s visit to India. According to Information And Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar, the Cabinet approved an MoU with the US on the issue of IPRs.
The United States had long been pushing India to strengthen protection for intellectual property and that has been a cause of friction on top of trade disputes between the two countries. India was among 10 others placed on a ‘Priority Watch List’ by the United States Trade Representative (USTR) office for IP violations in April 2019.
According to a report, although India has taken steps to address intellectual property challenges and promote IP protection and enforcement, many of the actions have not yet transformed into concrete benefits for innovators and creators and long-standing deficiencies persist. India remains one of the world’s most challenging major economies with respect to protection and enforcement of IP.
The Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade held a meeting regarding changes to the existing IPR policies earlier this month. According to sources, the MoU could be for an initial pact on IPR issue.
Describing it as knowledge-sharing agreement, officials said the agreement will enrich the IPR systems between the two sides. The pact comes in the wake of India slipping to 40th position on the US Chamber’s International IP Index.
The US narrative on India’s Pharma industry has focussed on the claim of intellectual property rights being stolen by Indian generic drug makers. Such affordable Indian drugs supply over 60 per cent of the global market for vaccines and antiretroviral drugs. However, a USTR report claimed that over 20 per cent of drugs sold in the Indian market were ‘counterfeit’ i.e., drugs that are made as an exact copy of a trademarked item. In contrast to the international definition of drugs as substandard/ /falsely-labelled/counterfeit, the US terminology has a greater base in the country’s dispute with India over IPR violations.
In 2016, India announced its first National Intellectual Property Rights Policy, with then Finance Minister Arun Jaitley saying the approach was to “balance consideration of inventability, innovation and public health consideration.”