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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | US to launch fresh review of India's patent regime -Sidhartha

US to launch fresh review of India's patent regime -Sidhartha

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published Published on Oct 14, 2014   modified Modified on Oct 14, 2014
-The Times of India

NEW DELHI: Within days of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's return from the US, the US Trade Representative (USTR) has launched a fresh offensive against India's intellectual property rights (IPR) regime, a move that may lead to the government going slow on a bilateral dialogue with Washington.

On Tuesday, USTR will launch what it calls an "out-of-cycle review" (OCR) of India's IPR regime, following a report released earlier this year, where India was put on the priority watch list due to "heightened level of concern about the deterioration in India's environment for IP protection and enforcement". Now, it is seeking public comments and information related to law, policies, or practices related to India's IPR.

The US government has been under pressure from local lobby groups, led by pharma multinationals, to initiate action as the Indian law has special provisions that allow patent authorities to reject a patent application citing lack of innovation. Big Pharma is particularly upset with the use of compulsory licensing provisions that allowed authorities in India to waive the patent rights for a cancer drug and fear that other countries may follow suit to make drugs more affordable for patients.

An OCR is a second stage of the Special 301 action and being an extreme measure, the US authorities can impose sanctions after putting the country in the "priority foreign watch" category.

The government has, however, dismissed it as a unilateral action by the US and said concerns of a foreign government need to be taken up at the World Trade Organization (WTO). "As far as we are concerned, all our laws and rules are compliant with our commitments at WTO. A country can't judge India's policies using its own yardsticks when there is a multilateral agreement," said a commerce department official, who did not wish to be identified.

The USTR's latest move is seen as the latest stumbling block in efforts to normalize frosty trade and economic relations and comes within a fortnight of Modi and US President Barack Obama explicitly agreeing to use an arrangement finalized five years ago for a bilateral dialogue on IPR policies.

In the past, India has also said that it may explore the option of approaching WTO for "unilateral move" by US, with officials citing a 1999 ruling of the multilateral body to argue that it was a unilateral action.


The Times of India, 14 October, 2014, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/US-to-launch-fresh-review-of-Indias-patent-regime/articleshow/44806961.cms


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