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 To strengthen engagement on these and other copyright issues, and to build upon the strengths of the vibrant Indian and U.S. copyright-intensive industries, including in movies, music, and software, the United States would welcome closer bilateral cooperation with India in addressing the challenges of copyright piracy of U.S. and Indian content globally, including, for example, cooperation and exchanges at the technical level between copyright protection and enforcement experts in each government.

Patents & Regulatory Data Protection

The United States continues to encourage India to promote a stable and predictable patent system that nurtures and incentivizes innovation. As leading economies with a strong tradition of innovation, India and the United States can and should ensure supportive environments for innovators to achieve success and make significant contributions to economic growth in both countries.

The United States commends India on actions taken in recent years to improve the operations of its Patent Office, including digitizing records, upgrading online search and e-filing capabilities, and hiring additional patent examiners. The United States urges India to continue its recent efforts to address its patent application backlog. The United States welcomes recent statements from India's Controller-General of Patents regarding plans to hire 500 patent examiners in the next five years, as well as a Delhi High Court decision ordering a committee of senior officials to develop a plan of action to address the backlog and ensure that future applications are processed within the statutory deadline. The United States encourages greater technical collaboration between patent authorities in both countries that would facilitate the more timely examination of patent applications.

Recent actions by the Government of India with respect to patents, however, have raised serious concerns about the innovation climate in India and risk hindering India's progress towards an innovation-focused economy. In the pharmaceutical sector and increasingly in other sectors, such as the agro-chemicals and green technology sectors, some innovators face serious challenges in securing and enforcing patents in India. In recognition of the fact that an environment conducive to the protection and enforcement of IP can help to address pressing domestic policy challenges, the United States encourages India to adopt policies that support both cutting-edge innovation to address important health challenges and a robust generic market.

For example, a patent system should encourage the development of inventions that meet the well-established international criteria of being new, involving an inventive step, and being capable of industrial application, including as provided for in the TRIPS Agreement. Under India's Patents Act, a patent is available for an "invention," defined in Section 2(j) of the Act as a product or process that is novel, has an inventive step, and is capable of industrial application. Section 3(d) of India's Patent Act states in relevant part that "the mere discovery of a new form of a known substance which does not result in the enhancement of the known efficacy of that substance" is not considered to be an "invention" under Indian law. As the Indian Supreme

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