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What is the News?
The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) has released Special 301 Report 2022.
What is the Special 301 Report?
Released by: Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR)
Purpose: To identify trading partners that do not adequately or effectively protect and enforce Intellectual Property (IP) rights or otherwise deny market access to U.S. innovators and creators that rely on the protection of their IP rights.
Categories: The report places countries into:
Priority Watch list countries -These are those countries that are having serious intellectual property rights deficiencies and require increased United States Trade Representative(USTR) attention.
Watch List countries – These countries are having serious intellectual property rights deficiencies but are not yet placed on the Priority Watch list.
What are the key findings of the report?
Priority Watch List Countries: Argentina, Chile, China, India, Indonesia, Russia and Venezuela.
Report on India: India remains one of the most challenging major economies with respect to the protection and enforcement of intellectual property
India’s accession to the World Intellectual Property Organization(WIPO) Performances and Phonograms Treaty and WIPO Copyright Treaty collectively known as the WIPO Internet Treaties, in 2018 and the Nice Agreement in 2019 were positive steps.
However, the potential threat of patent revocations, lack of presumption of patent validity and narrow patentability criteria under the Indian Patents Act impact companies across different sectors.
For instance, in the pharmaceutical sector, the United States continues to monitor the restriction on the patent-eligible subject matter in Section 3(d) of the Indian Patents Act and its impacts.
Source: The post is based on the article “IP protection: India among most challenging economies, says USTR” published in Indian Express on 28th April 2022.
