India, 11 others on US IPR priority watch list

WASHINGTON: The US has placed India and 11 other countries including China and Russia on its Priority Watch List for allegedly not providing an adequate level of intellectual property rights protection or enforcement.

Other countries on the list are Algeria, Argentina, Canada, Chile, Indonesia, Israel, Pakistan, Thailand, and Venezuela.

The Priority Watch List countries will be the subject of particularly intense engagement through bilateral discussion during the coming year, the US Trade Representative said in its annual report on IPR.

The report "guides our efforts to protect American innovation and creativity around the world," said Ron Kirk, US Trade Representative in a statement.

"Our creative and innovative products can hit the global marketplace sometimes with just a keystroke. If we and our trading partners are not vigilant in protecting and enforcing intellectual property rights, they can vanish just as quickly," he said.

In addition to this, the USTR has listed 33 countries on the 'lower level watch list', meriting bilateral attention to address the underlying IPR problems.