US views on India's IPR protection not justified: Sharma

New Delhi: Flaying the US decision to place India again in the group of countries with insufficient intellectual property protection, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma has said the country is WTO-compliant. Describing the US step as “unfortunate and unjustified”, Sharma in his letter to US Trade Representative (USTR) Ron Kirk said, “I would like to mention that India has been found to be compliant with all WTO regulations including the TRIPS Agreement, in the recent review of India’s trade policy carried out in the WTO.” [caption id=“attachment_303021” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma has said the country is WTO-compliant. Reuters”] [/caption] On 30 April, the USTR released its Special 301 Report, an annual review of the global state of IPR protection and enforcement. USTR had reviewed 77 trading partners for this year’s Special 301 Report. It placed 40 countries on the priority Watch List or the Section 306 monitoring list. An expert said that placing India into such a list was “just a kind of psychological pressure on India and there would not be any trade restrictions”. Sharma has asked the USTR for a comprehensive re-look at the intellectual property regime in India “with an open mind” and said that India is ready to discuss all its concerns. India continued to be included in the US priority watch list of countries together with 14 others like China, Pakistan, Canada and Russia. Kirk has said that these countries will be the subject of particularly intense bilateral engagement during the coming year. The report has said that India made limited progress on IPR protection and enforcement in 2011, and its legal framework and enforcement system remain weak. “India has maintained a stable IPR, which is fully Trips compliant and we have a strong enforcement mechanism in place. India’s IPR regime has witnessed many steps in the recent times to improve efficiency and transparency in the Intellectual Property Office and measures have been taken to accede to the Madrid Protocol,” Sharma said. The US, in its report, has also raised concerns about the issuing of compulsory license by India. It has said that the US would closely monitor developments concerning compulsory licensing of patents in India following the broad interpretation of Indian law in a recent decision by the Controller General of Patents. India, however, maintained that it had not bent any rules and its steps were strictly as per the flexibilities contained in Trips to address health concerns of its people. “The IP regime in India will continue to be responsive to our country’s needs especially on public health issues, within the parameters of flexibilities available to us under the Trips Agreement. The application of law will be equal across residents of all countries including India,” Sharma added. PTI