China, India among countries on US piracy, patents blacklist

[sherin616]

The United States on Wednesday named China
and India among countries on its blacklist of
countries failing to properly protect US
copyrights and patents but kept their status
unchanged from the previous review. The US Trade Representative did not designate
any countries a "priority foreign country," the
worst label in its annual scorecard on how well
countries protect U.S. patents, copyrights and
other intellectual property rights. US businesses had wanted India named the
worst offender this year, a path which could
have led to trade sanctions. The USTR said it
would try to resolve ongoing concerns through
bilateral engagement with the country, which is
in the midst of elections. "The United States will redouble its efforts to
seek opportunities for meaningful, sustained, and
effective engagement on IP-related matters with
the new government," the report said. In China, the USTR said it had "significant
concerns" about the theft of trade secrets and
urged the government to take steps to stop
Chinese companies taking advantage of overseas
competitors. The USTR said no action would be taken against
Ukraine, which was named a "priority foreign
country" last year, despite ongoing concerns
about copyright, due to the current political
situation. The USTR also removed Italy from the intellectual
property black list altogether after the country
took new steps to combat copyright piracy over
the Internet.