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NAYANIMA BASU

New Delhi, 23 February

The government appears tohave decided not to grantvisas to the US officials plan-

ning to visit India and investigatethe countrys trade and industrialpractices, especially related to lawsgoverning intellectual propertyrights (IPR).

This was decided at a meetingattended by representatives of the

external affairs, commerce & indus-try and finance ministries, besidesthe Planning Commission.

Officials of the US InternationalTrade Commission (US ITC) want-ed to visit India to examine NewDelhis policies in respect of IPRlaws. India considered the USrequest to visit the country andscrutinise its IPR regime as objec-

tionable and against national inter-est, a top official involved in thematter toldBusiness Standard.

The US ITC, a quasi-judicial inde-pendent federal body that advises tothe US President, the US trade rep-resentative and the Congress ontrade matters, had begun a probeinto Indias trade and industrial poli-cies on February 12. It has decided to

forward a consolidated report to theUS Congress on the basis of its find-ings. That country will then takenecessary actions against India the worst-case scenario could beimposition of trade sanctions.

They are free to do whateverthey can (but) sitting in their own

country... they certainly cannot goaround the government and expectus to open up our files to them. Nocountry can impose their laws onothers. Would they allow us to do soif we launched an investigationinto their laws, asked another offi-

cial, asking not to be named.Indias official stance on the US

ITCs investigation will be firmedup at another meeting that ForeignSecretary Sujatha Singh is expectedto hold on March 21. A letter on thematter and the way it will be dealthas been sent to the Prime

Ministers Office.Since US President Barack

Obamas 2010 India visit, Americanfirms, especially a certain segment ofthe US pharmaceutical industry,have become extremely vocal aboutIndian policies on domestic content

requirements and IPR.India believes the US is doing

these to protect the interest of ahandful of pharmaceutical compa-nies that have a strong lobby in theUS government. These includePfizer, Bayer and and Swiss pharmamajor Novartis (which has a strong

presence in the US).The government does not seem

to be leaving any stone unturned

in fighting it out. The Departmentof Industrial Policy and Promotion(DIPP), under the commerce &industry ministry, has prepared alist of all cases since 1974 wherethe US has violated IPR laws,rejected patents and invoked com-pulsory licensing in sectors rang-ing from electronics to pharma-ceuticals.

During the 2002-2012 period, 20cases related to pharmaceuticalswere invalidated by the US FederalDistrict Courts, compared with 34related to mechanical devices and10 to medical devices. Between2007 and 2011, about 280 caseswere identified in the US FederalDistrict Courts where patent valid-ity was determined. Of these,

patent was held valid and enforce-able in only 39 cases. In 253 cases,the patent was held invalid.

Refusing to deal with the matterbilaterally, the government has,apparently, told its American coun-terpart that such issues should bediscussed only at multilateral plat-forms like the World IntellectualProperty Organization (WIPO) and

World Trade Organization (WTO).However, following the Novartis

and Bayer-Onyx cases, the US isconcerned that other countries likeBrazil, China and Africa might fol-low Indias model of compulsorylicensing.

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India set to take on US

over probe into IPR lawsTo deny visa to trade officials planning to scrutinise countrys trade & industrial practicesA RIGHTS

BATTLE| US ITC launches

an investigationagainst Indiastrade and indus-trial policies earlythis month

| US ITC wants to

visit India to study Indian trade practices norms,particularly on intellectual property rights

| India calls it objectionable and against nationalinterest

| India wants the US to fight the matter at multilateralbodies like WTO, WIPO

| India prepares a list of cases since 1974 where US has vio-lated IPR norms and rejected patents both

pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical

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