USTR keeps big hitters on watchlist
The office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) named China and Canada as countries that are failing to adequately and effectively deal with IP protection in a report released in May.
The annual Special 301 Report outlines IP issues that threaten American innovation and jobs, and calls for trading partners of the US to improve their mechanisms for protecting IP.
It names US trading partners—on the ‘priority watch list’ and the ‘watch list’—that require bilateral engagement over the next 12 months to tackle underlying IP rights problems. Countries on the priority watch list cause the most concern because they are considered to provide insufficient IP rights or enforcement.
The USTR reviewed 77 trading partners and put China, Russia, Algeria, Argentina, Canada, Chile, India, Indonesia, Israel, Pakistan, Thailand and Venezuela on the priority watch list. USTR Ambassador Ron Kirk said: “We are ready to work intensively with [our trading partners] to stop intellectual property theft that threatens IP-related jobs in the [US] and other countries.”
China and Canada are the US’s biggest trading partners. The report acknowledged the success of China Premier Wen Jiabao’s October 2010 ‘Program for Special Campaign on Combating IPR Infringement and Manufacture and Sales of Counterfeiting and Shoddy Commodities’ in producing regulatory and judicial changes and strengthening enforcement activities.
But the report said that anti-counterfeiting efforts have been hindered by China’s May 2010 prosecution guidelines that tripled the threshold for investigating and prosecuting trade in counterfeit products.It added:
“High thresholds for initiating criminal actions have always been a significant barrier to effective enforcement against the sale of counterfeits. Raising these thresholds introduces new problems into an already difficult enforcement environment in which administrative fines lack deterrent effect and are viewed merely as a cost of doing business.”
The report also urged Canada to implement previous commitments to improving its legal framework for the protection and enforcement of IP rights.
The report said: “Unfortunately, Canadian efforts in 2010 to enact long-awaited copyright legislation were unsuccessful. The [US] encourages Canada to make the enactment of copyright legislation that addresses the challenges of piracy over the Internet, including by fully implementing the [World Intellectual Property Organization] Internet Treaties, a priority for its new government.”
