Govt to use TRIPS to protect domestic pharma
The Dollar Business Bureau The government on Monday reiterated its commitment to protect the domestic pharmaceutical sector from all IPR-related foreign pressures by employing flexibilities extended under the Trade-Related details of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) framework. “In this regard, it is also to be mentioned that FDI is permitted in the brownfield pharma sector through government approval route only,” Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in a written reply in Lok Sabha on Monday. Sitharaman also signaled that the US Special 301 report has placed India on the Priority Watch List, as the US considers India’s IPR protection relatively inadequate. The Commerce Minister indicated that the report is a unilateral measure to influence countries to enhance their IPR protection regime beyond the TRIPS agreement. She, however, ...
US concerned over India as a trading partner
The Dollar Business Bureau The United States listed India under its ‘Priority Watch List’ in an annual special review report on the state of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) protection and enforcement in US trading partners around the world. In its 2015 Special 301 Report, the office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) reported inadequacies in trade secret protection in China, India and other countries. Algeria, Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Indonesia, Kuwait, Pakistan, Russia, Thailand, Ukraine and Venezuela are also included in the Priority Watch List. The report also termed India as the country that serves to illustrate the extent of economic harm arising from trademark counterfeiting to consumers, producers and the governments. Referring to a joint study by The International ...
