USA and India continue disagreement on IP protection

India’s record to uphold intellectual property rights is anything but solid, a major US business group has pointed out, even as the Indian government stands its ground maintaining that its laws are in consonance with the World Trade Organization led agreements, writes The Pharma Letter’s India correspondent.

Though the US Chamber of Commerce's Global Intellectual Property Center (GIPC) recently noted that India has the worst record on issues such as respect of patents, copyrights and international treaties, underlined by an ongoing controversy over pharmaceuticals, Indian drugmakers have countered that the World Health Organization has endorsed India's patent laws, and that no country has challenged these laws at the WTO.

In GIPC's International IP Index report, India has been ranked at the bottom of the list of 30 countries - below Ukraine, the only country currently designated as a Priority Foreign Country by the US government.