It has been 27 years since the USTR office launched its Special 301 report to rate other countries on their IPR regime. Although India overhauled its IPR legislation completely in 2005 and moved over to the products patent regime to honour commitments under the TRIPS agreement, its status in the Special 301 report remained the same. This year, too, India was placed in the ‘priority watch’ list of countries that, according to the US, need to tighten their IP laws.
The US’ problem with India’s IPR regime has nothing to do with adherence to WTO norms. The powerful US pharmaceutical lobby has a problem with Indian pharma producers, who have managed to serve the poor not just in India but across the world. Cheap generic medicines (copied versions of drugs whose patents have expired) manufactured in India have been making medical care affordable for millions in Africa and Latin America, not to mention the US itself.
With patented medicines worth several billion dollars going off-patent in the current decade, pharmaceutical giants, many US-based, are trying to evergreen their patents through cosmetic changes, and applying for fresh patents. But they have been largely unsuccessful in India. A special provision in the Indian Patents Act, Section 3 (d), allows the Indian Patents Controller to deny patents on items that are not significantly different from their older versions. Through its Special 301 report, the US is trying to push India to drop Section 3 (d). It also does not want compulsory licences to be issued for manufacture of copies of patented drugs to address situations of national emergency, as permitted by the TRIPS agreement.
With the multilateral trade laws on its side and the interest of millions of poor, India should either ignore or laugh off the USTR’s efforts.
Deputy Editor