Amid US companies allegations that India's Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) regime is discriminatory, particularly for pharmaceutical industry. Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that Indian IPR policy is in the making and the draft is out inviting inputs from all. The draft policy has sought to encourage innovation by providing tax incentives and modifying IPR.
The minister reiterated that there is no question of 'appeasing' the US or anyone else through the new policy. There were reports that India is diluting its stand on issues such as data protection and patent linkage with the US in its new IPR policy. Earlier, the Commerce and Industry Ministry has constituted a six-member think tank to draft the National IPR policy and advise the department on IPR issues. There was some pressure from the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) as well as the International Trade Commission (USITC), while recently during the meeting of Sitharaman and US Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker both the sides discussed IPR related issues and the minister invited comments from the US on the draft IPR policy.
India has consistently maintained that its laws are compliant with global and WTO norms but US has kept India’s status as ‘Priority Watch List’ country for having an alleged weak intellectual property rights and patents regime. Under pressure from its companies, especially from the pharmaceutical segment, the US has been threatening India since 2013 on putting it under ‘Priority Foreign Country’ label.