"India's patent and trademark laws continue to fall well short of providing adequate and effective protection," the USTR release said. "India has enacted modern copyright legislation, but improvements continue to be necessary in the enforcement area," it noted.

Of the nations named in the list, the USTR is required to decide which should be designated "priority foreign countries", the release said.

The term means countries that "have the most onerous and egregious acts, policies and practices which have the greatest adverse impact on the relevant US products, and are not engaged in good faith negotiations or makingsignificant progress in negotiations to address these problems". Noting that Pakistan took steps to implement its obligations under TRIPS , Barshefsky said it has been included in a separate watch list as US looks forward to Islamabad moving "quickly to improve protection for intellectual property".