USTR claims India, China, Dominican Republic major sources of counterfeit medicine

A majority of all counterfeit pharmaceuticals by value seized at the U.S. border in fiscal year 2021 was shipped from or trans-shipped through India, China, and the Dominican Republic, the 2022 Special 301 Report of the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) has claimed.

The report also quoted a recent OECD and EUIPO study to suggest that China, India, the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Pakistan are the leading sources of counterfeit medicines distributed globally. The report says that the problem of trademark counterfeiting continues on a global scale and involves the production, transshipment, and sale of a vast array of fake goods.

The annual Special 301 Report reviews the state of intellectual property (IP) protection and enforcement in U.S. trading partners around the world. It has retained India among the "Priority Watch List" which indicates that USTR considers India to be creating problems with respect to IP protection, enforcement, or market access for U.S. persons relying on IP.

The report criticised India's Personal Data Protection Bill and draft Non-Personal Data Governance Framework by terming them as examples of initiatives that potentially threaten innovation and economic growth for US companies.

It also flagged the issue of optical disc piracy and said that it continues in many countries, including China, India, Mexico, and Pakistan. "Online piracy is the most challenging copyright enforcement issue in many foreign markets. For example, during the review period, countries such as Argentina, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, India, Mexico, the Netherlands, Romania, Russia, Switzerland, Thailand, Ukraine, and Vietnam had high levels of online piracy and lacked effective enforcement," the report says. It said that despite proposing a draft legislation to criminalise unauthorised camcording in 2019, India, a source of video and audio camcords, is yet to get it passed by the Parliament.

However, USTR appreciated India's pro-IP actions too. Illustrating the best practices followed by its trading partners in the area of intellectual property (IP) protection and enforcement, it said India's Cell for Intellectual Property Rights Promotion and Management (CIPAM) organises and spearheads the government's efforts to simplify and streamline IP processes, increase IP awareness, promote commercialisation, and enhance enforcement. "India's CIPAM reportedly organized over 400 webinars for a variety of stakeholders and maintained an active social media presence. In December 2020, the USPTO and India's Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) signed a new Memorandum of Understanding related to IP technical cooperation mechanisms, and DPIIT and USPTO are in the process of entering into a biennial work plan to guide implementation of the Memorandum," the report says.

The report also mentions about the Intellectual Property Working Group formed under the India-United States Trade Policy Forum (TPF), which met three times in 2021, exchanged ideas and discussed developments on patent, copyright, and trademark issues, among others. "At the twelfth Ministerial-level meeting of the TPF held in November 2021, India clarified certain aspects of its patent and trademark systems and agreed to comply with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Performances and Phonograms Treaty and WIPO Copyright Treaty, collectively known as the WIPO Internet Treaties," the report says.