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     Blazewada Mudiripoyina Bewarse Username: Blazewada Post Number: 20746 Registered: 08-2008 Posted From: 218.186.8.233 Rating: N/A |
Washington: The United States has resisted lobbying by US businesses to take tougher trade action against India for its intellectual property policies, deciding against risking ties with a likely new government in New Delhi. The US Trade Representative avoided labeling India with the worst offender tag in its annual scorecard on protecting US patents, copyrights and other intellectual property (IP) rights. Instead, the United States kept India, which is in the midst of elections, on its Priority Watch List along with China and eight other countries. It would start a special review of India in the fall and "redouble" efforts to address concerns with the new government, the US Trade Representative said. Intellectual property worries The USTR said India's limits on the approval of pharmaceutical patents, a convoluted process for patent challenges and the fact that the government was considering opening a series of patented drugs to generic manufacturers created "serious challenges" for some innovators. The spread of pirated goods in India, a stalwart of the US IP black list, was also worrying. The report noted estimates that counterfeiting and smuggling lost copyright holders almost $12 billion in 2012. Shops in Nehru Place market in India's capital New Delhi primarily deal in computer peripherals, but it has also been classified as one of the most notorious markets for piracy in the world. Pirated versions of copied software programs of companies such as Adobe and Oracle and various operating systems of Microsoft are on sale. The compact disc of Windows 7 operating system costs 100 rupees ($1.66), compared with about $100 for an original copy. Alok, who sells pirated games in the market, said he does not know about the losses incurred by companies because of piracy. "I only care about my daily wage of 130 rupees," he said. China, with the world's largest Internet user base, had low revenue from digital sales of movies and music, suggesting widespread piracy, the USTR said, while counterfeit goods were readily available online. Promises that government offices would only use legal software had not led to a jump in sales, it said. The USTR said it had "significant concerns" about the theft of trade secrets and urged the government to take steps to stop Chinese companies taking advantage of overseas competitors. Despite ongoing concerns about copyright, no action would be taken against last year's "priority foreign country," Ukraine, due to the current political situation, the USTR said. |