Despite improvements to law and enforcement in some areas, China, Russia and other mainstays of the U.S. Trade Representative’s list of intellectual property-infringing hotspots deserve to remain in their place, IP owners told USTR for its Special 301 review. Comments were due late Tuesday, though foreign governments have until Feb. 22 to file. Domain name disputes and illicit pay-TV streaming drew attention from some commenters. Canada remained a top concern as well for failing to pass a copyright reform bill or ratify the World Intellectual Property Organization’s so-called Internet treaties, concluded in 1997.

CBP has issued a CSMS message stating that due to technical issues that began 2/15/11, paperless releases may be received in error for Agriculture-related/regulated material on entries filed at the Los Angeles/Long Beach Seaport. These entries (whether they have received paperless release or not) should still be submitted for review to the Cargo Selectivity office, located on the 8th floor at 301 E. Ocean Blvd, Long Beach, CA 90802. All shipments of fresh fruits and vegetables, seeds and bulbs, live plants and plant material, grains and cereals, meat and animal products, tile and stone, pasta, and other items previously requiring paperwork review and/or inspection should have entry documents presented at the aforementioned location. A subsequent message will be transmitted once the issue is resolved.

Brazil, China, Italy and Spain are the “leading havens” for online game piracy, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) said Tuesday, citing the findings in a new “Special 301” report filed with the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) by the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA). ESA is a member of IIPA, which proposed that 33 countries be placed on USTR’s list of countries that are failing to adequately or effectively protect intellectual property rights or provide creators with adequate market access. ESA pointed to “extraordinarily high levels of online piracy occurring through the use of popular peer-to-peer (P2P) protocols by subscribers in” the four countries called leading game piracy havens, along with France. Infringing P2P sharing of game files in those countries accounted for 54 percent of the piracy activity observed globally in 2010, ESA said. The game industry “continues to grow in the U.S., but epidemic levels of online piracy stunt sales and growth in” many other countries, said ESA President Michael Gallagher. ESA is seeing “crushing volumes of infringing peer-to-peer activity involving leading game titles,” he said. As a result, publishers “lose opportunities for export sales, and the U.S. loses opportunities to expand our export economy, and consumers in those countries lose local benefits of having a thriving game market,” he said. ESA joined with other IIPA members in recommending that Spain be elevated to USTR’s Priority Watch List and that “meaningful actions be taken to stem the tide of piracy which threatens Spain’s creative industries,” ESA said. It was also recommended that Italy remain on the Special 301 Watch List, “due in large part to extraordinarily high levels of online piracy,” ESA said. ESA vendors last year “detected more than 30 million connections by peers participating in unauthorized file sharing of select member titles on P2P networks through Italian ISPs, placing Italy number one in overall volume of detections in the world, as well as number one in detections per capita and detections per Internet user,” it said. IIPA recommended that Brazil remain on the Watch List, while Canada remain on the Priority Watch List pending passage of copyright improvements and border enforcement reforms, ESA said. ESA joined IIPA in recommending that China be maintained on the Priority Watch List because it “remains the source of much of the world’s supply of counterfeit games and game hardware and circumvention devices,” ESA said.

Brazil, China, Italy and Spain are the “leading havens” for online game piracy, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) said Tuesday, citing the findings in a new “Special 301” report filed with the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) by the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA). ESA is a member of IIPA, which proposed that 33 countries be placed on USTR’s list of countries that are failing to adequately or effectively protect intellectual property rights or provide creators with adequate market access. ESA pointed to “extraordinarily high levels of online piracy occurring through the use of popular peer-to-peer (P2P) protocols by subscribers in” the four countries called leading game piracy havens, along with France. Infringing peer-to-peer sharing of game files in those countries accounted for 54 percent of the piracy activity observed globally in 2010, ESA said. The game industry “continues to grow in the U.S., but epidemic levels of online piracy stunt sales and growth in” many other countries, said ESA President Michael Gallagher. ESA is seeing “crushing volumes of infringing peer-to-peer activity involving leading game titles,” he said. As a result, publishers “lose opportunities for export sales, and the U.S. loses opportunities to expand our export economy, and consumers in those countries lose local benefits of having a thriving game market,” he said. ESA joined with other IIPA members in recommending that Spain be elevated to USTR’s Priority Watch List and that “meaningful actions be taken to stem the tide of piracy which threatens Spain’s creative industries,” ESA said. It was also recommended that Italy remain on the Special 301 Watch List, “due in large part to extraordinarily high levels of online piracy,” ESA said. ESA vendors last year “detected more than 30 million connections by peers participating in unauthorized file sharing of select member titles on P2P networks through Italian ISPs, placing Italy number one in overall volume of detections in the world, as well as number one in detections per capita and detections per Internet user,” it said. IIPA recommended that Brazil remain on the Watch List, while Canada remain on the Priority Watch List pending passage of copyright improvements and border enforcement reforms, ESA said. ESA joined IIPA in recommending that China remain on the Priority Watch List because it “remains the source of much of the world’s supply of counterfeit games and game hardware and circumvention devices,” ESA said.

The Census Bureau has issued a proposed rule to amend the Foreign Trade Regulations (FTR, 15 CFR Part 30) to modify the post-departure filing program (also referred to as Option 4) by changing the filing time frame to five calendar days (from ten) and only allowing post-departure reporting for certain listed approved type commodities.

The Census Bureau has issued a proposed rule to amend the Foreign Trade Regulations (FTR, 15 CFR Part 30) to modify the post-departure filing program (also referred to as Option 4) by changing the filing time frame to five calendar days (from ten) and only allowing post-departure reporting for certain listed approved type commodities.

The Census Bureau has issued a proposed rule to amend the Foreign Trade Regulations (FTR, 15 CFR Part 30) to modify the post-departure filing program (also referred to as Option 4) by changing the filing time frame to five calendar days (from ten) and only allowing post-departure reporting for certain listed approved commodities.

The Census Bureau has issued a proposed rule to amend the Foreign Trade Regulations (FTR, 15 CFR Part 30) to modify the post-departure filing program (also referred to as Option 4) by changing the filing time frame to five calendar days (from ten) and only allowing post-departure reporting for certain listed approved commodities.

The Justice Department has released the annual Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property (PRO IP) Act¹ reports, which describe the Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) activities in combating crimes involving intellectual property (IP), and their steps to take to address IP crime in fiscal year 2011.

The Census Bureau has issued a proposed rule to amend the Foreign Trade Regulations (FTR, 15 CFR Part 30) to modify the post-departure filing program (also referred to as Option 4) by changing the filing time frame to five calendar days (from ten) and only allowing post-departure reporting for certain listed approved commodities.