Thirty-seven countries were featured on the U.S. Trade Representative...
Thirty-seven countries were featured on the U.S. Trade Representative Special 301 Watch List 2014 for insufficient enforcement of intellectual property rights, said the USTR report (http://1.usa.gov/R32RYF) released Wednesday. Ten countries, including China and India, were designated as priority watch list…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
countries, it said. USTR claimed India is a particularly poor environment for intellectual property protection, but declined to name it a priority foreign country, the most severe classification of an IP rights violator, it said. The Obama administration is looking to engage with a new Indian government, set to form following the conclusion of elections in mid-May, said a USTR official on a background conference call with reporters Wednesday. USTR corroborated that stance in an blog post (http://1.usa.gov/1u9zNxT). “This year’s placement of India on the Priority Watch List with an Out-of-Cycle Review highlights the increasing importance of the role of IP in the development of the world’s second most populous country,” said the International Intellectual Property Alliance Counsel Steven J. Metalitz, Eric Schwartz, Michael Schlesinger and Amanda Wilson Denton in a news release. “India needs to step up its efforts to ensure IP protection and enforcement in the country supports its own right[s] holders as well as those from abroad.” The report “shows the great progress that is being made in territories such as Italy, but also highlights the numerous challenges that we continue to face around the world,” said Chris Dodd, MPAA chairman, in a statement (http://bit.ly/R7priJ). “MPAA applauds Italy’s leadership in developing a fast-track online enforcement system for massive infringements,” Dodd said, saying Switzerland should “follow Italy’s lead.” The Association of American Publishers “appreciates that USTR recognized the challenges faced by authors and publishers due to the growth of online copyright infringement worldwide and has again highlighted such infringement of scientific, technical and medical publications in China,” said CEO Tom Allen in a statement (http://bit.ly/1nNmq4Q). “We are disappointed, however, that the Report failed to prioritize serious copyright concerns in Canada, specifically its undefined education exception and the negative impact on all publishers invested in the Canadian market,” he said.