US concludes OCR of India's intellectual property policies

Citing positive steps taken by the new Indian government in addressing America's concerns on intellectual property (IP) rights, the US has concluded its Out-of-Cycle Review of India's intellectual property policies.

India has made useful commitments in recent months to institutionalize high-level engagement, pursue a specific work program and deepen cooperation and information exchange with the US on IP-related issues under the US-India Trade Policy Forum, the United States Trade Representative (USTR) said in a statement as it announced to have concluded the OCR.

The USTR is the government agency responsible for developing and recommending trade policy to the president of the United States.
 

In the Special 301 Report published in April, the USTR had announced that the US would initiate an OCR of India in the fall of 2014 to evaluate progress toward achieving meaningful, sustained and effective engagement on the IP issues with the country.

Over the last few months, there have been multiple constructive engagements with the Indian officials on the broad range of issues of concern to the US and its stakeholders, the forum said and cited the number of steps being taken by the new Indian government in this regard.

The USTR officials hoped that these initial steps would culminate in India addressing its concerns over the IP issues.

"The US notes these steps and urges India to further strengthen and deepen our bilateral engagement on IP issues in the coming months and beyond," the USTR said.

The USTR, in a statement, also welcomed the opportunity to implement fully with India the agreed 2015 work plan on intellectual property as well as each of the IP-related commitments announced as part of the November 2014 Trade Policy Forum.