India put on US IPR priority watch list

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Releasing the 2004 Special 301 report Monday, US Trade Representative Robert
B. Zoellick identified India as among those on the priority watch list of
countries that "do not provide an adequate level of IPR protection or
enforcement, or market access for persons relying on intellectual property
protection". India's Copyright Act has three overly broad exceptions, which
together weaken protection of software, it said. Protection of foreign
trademarks "remains difficult" due to procedural barriers and delays.
Furthermore, piracy of copyrighted materials, particularly software, films,
popular fiction and certain text-books, remains a problem for the US and
Indian right holders, the USTR contended.  India has not adopted an optical
disc law to deal with optical media piracy, it noted. "Cable television
piracy continues to be a significant problem, with estimates of tens of
thousands of illegal systems in operation." "India needs sustained,
centralised, coordinated enforcement of intellectual property rights,
especially trademarks and copyrights," the report recommends saying the
country's court system were "extremely slow" with few convictions for
copyright infringements.

Source:
http://news.newkerala.com/business-news-india/?action=fullnews&id=15088