The Consumer Product Safety Commission has issued a final rule, effective June 13, 2011, which makes minor amendments its bicycle regulations to reflect new technologies, designs, and features in bicycles by clarifying that certain provisions or testing requirements do not apply to specific bicycles or bicycle parts. The amendments also clarify several ambiguous and confusing provisions, correct typographical errors, and remove an outdated reference.
During a recent webinar, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Revenue Division officials provided an update on the process and problems with bonds. An official announced that CBP is expected to soon publish a final version of a new CBP Form 301 (customs bond).
During a recent webinar, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Revenue Division officials provided an update on the process and problems with continuous bonds. CBP officials provided Revenue Division statistics on the volume the continuous bonds and other bond documents, rejection rates, and listed the top 10 rejection reasons.
A spokesman for China's Ministry of Commerce has issued comments regarding the U.S. Trade Representative's 2011 Special 301 Report, which continued to place China on Priority Watch List and to monitor China under Section 306. MOFCOM spokesman Yao Jian expressed regret for this, hoping the U.S. side makes more comprehensive, objective and fair evaluation on China's efforts in IPR protection. He stated that the China attaches great importance to IPR protection, and significant achievements have been made.
The Food and Drug Administration has issued an interim final rule, effective July 3, 2011, that will amend its regulations to lower the threshold for ordering administrative detention of food for human or animal consumption, as required by the Food Safety Modernization Act1. FDA states that with the new criteria, the number of administrative detentions2 for food is likely to increase.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is reopening the comment period for its interim rule, effective January 24, 2011, which prohibited or restricted the importation of birds, poultry and their products from regions where any subtype of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) is considered to exist. APHIS’ interim rule also imposed restrictions concerning importation of live poultry and birds that have been vaccinated for certain types of avian influenza, or that have moved through regions where any subtype of HPAI is considered to exist.
Despite progress, IP theft remains high in China, Russia and Canada, according to the U.S. Trade Representative’s annual Special 301 report issued Monday. A prevalence of piracy and counterfeiting remains in China and the country’s policy of “indigenous innovation” both disadvantages and discriminates against U.S. exports and investment, the report said: China remains on the “priority” watch list. Though Russia enacted four IP rights laws in 2010, ongoing piracy concerns and a lack of adequate enforcement kept Russia high on the office’s priority list, the report said. Canada’s inability to enact copyright legislation in 2010 and its lack of border enforcement contributed to the country’s continued presence on the priority list, the report said: The U.S. “continues to urge Canada to implement its previous commitments to improve its legal framework for IPR protection and enforcement.” USTR said there was more variety of goods being counterfeited in 2010 and online sales of pirated and counterfeit goods are nearly equal to the volume of fake goods sold by street vendors and other physical markets. The office touted positive IP developments such as progress made on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement negotiations and the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement. USTR identified 12 countries for placement on the priority list, including Algeria, Argentina, Chile, India, Israel, Indonesia, Pakistan, Thailand and Venezuela. Brazil, Italy and Spain remained on the regular watch list. Twenty-nine countries were placed on the watch list in all. USTR praised Mexico for enacting legislation granting ex officio authority to its law enforcement officials to start criminal investigations against trademark counterfeiting and copyright piracy without requiring the rights holder to first file a complaint. Spain was commended for taking “action to address the problem of copyright piracy over the Internet by passing legislation that will provide a mechanism for rights holders to remove or block access to infringing content online.” Entertainment Software Association President Michael Gallagher said “one of the fastest ways to get our economy back on track is to incent and reward high value intellectual property,” including videogames. The MPAA on Monday hailed the report and urged more protection to prevent movie theft abroad.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has released its 2011 “Special 301” annual report on the adequacy and effectiveness of U.S. trading partners’ protection of intellectual property rights (IPR). This year, for the first time, USTR has issued an open invitation to all trading partners listed in the report to cooperatively develop action plans to resolve IPR issues of concern.
Authorities in Ukraine seized servers for an adult torrent tracker, Pornolab.net, which operated out of a data center in that country, TorrentFreak.com said, citing police in Kiev. The site has 2 million registered users, with an estimated 700,000 Ukrainians. It’s violating Article 301 of the Ukrainian criminal code by offering the “importation, production, sale and distribution of pornographic material without age restriction,” police said. Police are attempting to identify Ukrainian users of the site and charge them as unlawful distributors because BitTorrent users upload pieces of a file they have received as the file continues downloading to their computers. TorrentFreak said Article 301 has previously been used by authorities to shut down “various publications deemed to be offensive, including literature aimed at the gay community,” and punishment can range from “large fines to 5 years in prison.” Another popular torrent tracker operating out of Ukraine, Demonoid, has tried to avoid attention from authorities by blocking local traffic and forbidding the distribution of adult content, TorrentFreak said.
The Food and Drug Administration is requesting comments by June 27, 2011, to help it review its framework for analyzing existing regulations to determine whether they should be modified, streamlined, expanded, or repealed, pursuant to Executive Order 13563, "Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review1."