USTR Issues Special 301 Report on Global IP Enforcement

In February of this year, the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) offered its thoughts to the United States Trade Representative (USTR) on how it viewed the current state of intellectual property enforcement around the world. Now the USTR has answered with its own official version (PDF).

The two reports agreed that the piracy was enough of a concern in the following countries to place them on a “Priority Watch List”: China, Russia, Argentina, Canada, India, Chile and Indonesia. The IIPA report additionally listed Costa Rica, Mexico and the Philippines under the “Priority” section, while those three countries appeared under the USTR’s standard “Watch List.”

Likewise, the USTR report had Pakistan, Thailand and Venezuela under its “Priority” list. Pakistan and Thailand appear under the IIPA’s standard “Watch List,” while Venezuela does not appear on the IIPA report at all.

The USTR praised three countries that had been under a “Watch List” in previous 301 reports—Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland—for their efforts on intellectual property rights (IPR) enforcement and removed them from the latest report all together.

With regard to China, the report stated that the USTR was “heartened by many positive steps the Chinese government took in 2009,” but noted that the U.S. “is also deeply troubled by the development of policies that may unfairly disadvantage U.S. rights holders by promoting ‘indigenous innovation.’”

Canada was urged by the U.S. to “enact legislation in the near term to update its copyright laws and address the challenge of Internet piracy.”

The U.S. also wants Canada to “provide its border officials with the authority to seize suspected infringing materials without the need for a court order.”

Internet piracy specifically, was labeled a “significant concern” in Brazil, Canada, China, India, Italy, Russia, Spain and Ukraine.

Countries that fail to comply with bilateral intellectual property agreements are subject to sanctions by the USTR.

IIPA members include the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), Business Software Alliance (BSA) and Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).