New Delhi has raised concerns about the European Union’s (EU) new trademark legislation that stipulates stricter enforcement measures, as it fears that this might lead to confiscation of legitimate Indian medicines being shipped to other destinations via European ports or airports.

A Commerce Ministry team recently met EU officials in Brussels seeking changes to the trademark law so that it doesn’t lead to unnecessary hassles for Indian pharmaceutical exporters, a Commerce Ministry official told BusinessLine .

“The EU trade division tried to convince the Indian team that the new laws would not impact India’s pharmaceutical exports, while India maintained that the threat of confiscation was real. More meetings are required to sort out the issue,” the official said.

The EU recently made its trademark law more stringent by introducing enforcement measures on goods in transit within its territories.

This means that not only will goods with logos similar to the ones registered in the EU countries be disallowed from being sold in the bloc, but such items could also be seized by customs officials at EU ports and airports even if they are meant for a third country.

“The new trademark legislation is unwarranted and unfair as the registration of a trademark is territorial and manufacturers in other countries may not have any idea that these exist,” the official said.

In its meeting with EU officials, the Indian team argued that a pharmaceutical manufacturer in India, selling items in Latin America or Africa, may be inadvertently using a logo similar to a registered trademark in the EU.

“It is wrong to seize such items while in transit to other markets on the ground that it violates trademark protection given to a particular item in the transit country,” the official said. India also fears that the new law could be an attempt to check its exports of cheap generics (copied versions of off-patent medicines) to markets in Latin America and Africa as large pharma companies, many of them based in the EU, feel threatened by the country’s cheap but high-quality medicines.

In 2008, shipments of generics from India on transit to other markets were seized at certain European airports on the grounds that the patents for these were held by multinational companies in Europe.

“The seizures happened despite the fact that the patents had expired both in India and the market where the generics were being shipped.

The EU stopped such seizures only after India cried foul and took up the issue at the World Trade Organisation,” the official said.

According to industry estimates, India’s exports of generics could rise from $15.4 billion in 2014-15 to $40 billion by 2020, as a number of medicines go off-patent over the next few years.

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