Indian IP Environment Still in a Grey Area

The US Trade Representative (USTR) in its ‘Out-of-Cycle Review of Notorious Markets’ report released on Thursday said that India has not taken any meaningful action against notorious markets where counterfeit products are openly sold.

The report alleged that numerous markets in India have appeared in past lists, with no identified meaningful, effective response by the Indian government. India ranking second last in the third edition of the annual international IP index brought out by the US Chamber of Commerce’s Global Intellectual Property Center (GIPC) has arisen a growing feeling of victimization in India.

Meir Pugatch, author of GIPC IP Index, who specializes in intellectual property policy, explained that the index as a tool is not focusing or victimizing India rather it is trying to encourage India to take sustained and coordinated enforcement action to strengthen its IP environment.

India does have a tough Copyright Act in place but its implementation is a much bigger problem. Indicators like the GIPC index and the USTR report reveal a gap in the context of discussion on the future of Intellectual Property regime in India and create a debate as to where India’s intellectual property environment needs to go.