Although India’s legal regime and Western-style court system make it relatively hospitable
to imported legal arguments and practices, the state-based organization of police, law, and
courts means that enforcement efforts quickly become enmeshed in complex local political
contexts, where industry actors have different degrees of leverage in mobilizing the police and
pushing cases through the overburdened Indian courts. India’s cumbersome criminal judicial
procedures, in particular, are a regular theme of International Intellectual Property Alliance
(IIPA) reports on India and form the basis of demands for new “fast-track” IP courts that can
process more than the current trickle of infringement cases. Industry successes—notably in
expanding the use of organized-crime statutes to prosecute film piracy—have all come at the
state level, with the support of powerful local industry stakeholders.