Lethal hypocrisy of US Special 301 Report

Patent protection in the US is a convoluted and expensive business and yet it pulls up other countries that have robust systems

- LATHA JISHNU

FOR INTIMIDATION, unabashed hypocrisy and disregard of inconvenient facts, the latest "Special 301 Report" brought out by the office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) continues to take the honours. The 2023 report is all of a piece with those of the previous years; its content, language and analysis not differing much for well over a decade. And India continues to be on its "Priority Watch" list, as it has been since at least 2007.

The "Special 301 Report" looks at the laws on intellectual property (IP) rights in over 100 countries that the US trades with, and assesses the "adequacy and effectiveness" of these regulations in protecting and enforcing IP rights. The yardstick USTR uses is its own-not any globally mandated agreement such as the World Trade Organization (WTO)'s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) but Washington's perception of how systems in different countries affect its trade interests. The "Priority Watch" list is USTR's category for those countries that present the most serious concerns in this regard.

What does the 2023 report say about India? That it "remains one of the world's most challenging major economies with respect to protection and enforcement of IP", with patent issues continuing to be of particular concern. Why so? Because of "the potential threat of patent revocations, lack of presumption of patent validity, and the narrow patentability criteria which impacts US companies across different sectors." It also complains that patent applicants continue to confront costly and time-consuming pre-grant and post-grant oppositions, long waiting periods to be granted patents and excessive reporting requirements.