US keeps India on watch list for IP rights ‘violations’
The US on Tuesday once again placed India on its ‘priority watch list’, stating that New Delhi remains one of the world’s most challenging major economies for the protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights (IPRs). The US Trade Representative’s (USTR) 2025 Special 301 report, an annual review of the global state of IPR protection and enforcement, said over the past year, India had remained inconsistent in its progress on intellectual property protection and enforcement.
It said although India had worked to strengthen its IP regime, there continued to be a lack of progress on many long-standing IP concerns.
“India remains one of the world’s most challenging major economies with respect to protection and enforcement of IP… India remains on the Priority Watch List in 2025,” it said.
The country had earlier stated that the report was a unilateral measure taken by the US under their Trade Act, 1974, to create pressure on countries to increase IPR protection beyond the TRIPS agreement.
India has maintained that its IPR regime is fully compliant with global trade norms.
The report comes in the backdrop of India-US negotiating a bilateral trade agreement to boost two-way commerce to $500 billion by 2030. The US is looking at bridging its trade deficit with India, which was $41.18 billion in 2024-25, through this pact.
A trade expert said India has a well established legislative, administrative and judicial framework to safeguard IPR that meets its obligations under the WTO’s Agreement on Trade Related IPRs (TRIPS).
The concerns identified in the report are based on the inputs provided by the American industry on their perception of the level of protection provided by India to Intellectual Property.
The report also said patent issues continue to be of particular concern in India.
“Among other concerns, the potential threat of patent revocations and the procedural and discretionary invocation of patentability criteria under the Indian Patents Act impact companies across different sectors. Moreover, patent applicants generally continue to confront long waiting periods to receive patent grants and excessive reporting requirements,” the report said.
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