The U.S. continues to have concerns about intellectual property rights protection and enforcement in dozens of countries but an annual report on the issue continues to make no mention of possible enforcement measures against countries that fail to address U.S. concerns. Instead the report states that the U.S. will “conduct extensive discussions” with named trading partners and develop an action plan with benchmarks for each country that has been on the priority watch list for at least a year.
The report from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative examines concerns with respect to border, criminal, and online enforcement against counterfeiting; trade secrets; forced technology transfer and indigenous innovation; geographical indications; trademark protection; copyright administration; market access; and other issues.
For more information on IPR and trade issues, please contact attorney Lee Sandler via email or at (305) 894-1000.
China
USTR said that in 2022 China continued its implementation of amendments to the Patent Law, Copyright Law, and Criminal Law but that the pace of reforms aimed at addressing IP issues slowed. Rights holders continue to raise concerns about the adequacy and effective implementation of these measures as well as longstanding issues like technology transfer, trade secrets, bad faith trademarks, counterfeiting, online piracy, and geographical indications. Most of the issues cited by USTR appear to be unchanged from the agency’s 2022 report.
Priority Watch List
Trading partners on the PWL present the most significant concerns regarding insufficient IPR protection or enforcement or actions that otherwise limit market access for persons relying on IPR protection. Argentina, Chile, China, India, Indonesia, Russia, and Venezuela remain on the PWL this year.
USTR’s review of Ukraine, which had appeared on the PWL in 2021, continues to be suspended in light of Russia’s invasion.
Watch List
The following trading partners are on the WL again this year and merit bilateral attention to address underlying IPR problems: Algeria, Barbados, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Guatemala, Mexico, Pakistan, Paraguay, Peru, Thailand, Trinidad & Tobago, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam.
Belarus has been added to the WL in response to a new law that legalizes the unlicensed use of certain copyrighted works if the right holder is from a foreign state “committing unfriendly actions” and allows royalties from this unlicensed usage to be shifted to the country’s general budget.
Bulgaria has also been added to the WL because it did not sufficiently address deficiencies in its investigation and prosecution of online piracy cases.
Out-of-Cycle Reviews
OCRs focus on identified challenges in specific markets. Successful resolution of these issues can lead to a positive change in a trading partner’s Special 301 status outside of the typical timeframe for the annual review, while failure to address these concerns or further deterioration within the specified timeframe can lead to an adverse change in status. USTR plans to again conduct an OCR of Bulgaria to assess whether it has made material progress on addressing deficiencies in its investigation and prosecution of online piracy cases.
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