*EPF309 05/01/2002
Excerpt: USTR Places Three Asian Economies on Priority Watch List
(Excerpt from 2002 intellectual property protection report) (810)
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) placed Indonesia, the Philippines, and Taiwan on its Priority Watch List due to persistent serious problems with intellectual property protection, according to the USTR's annual "Special 301" report released April 30.
Countries or territories placed on the "Priority Watch List" are not automatically subject to U.S. sanctions, but are closely monitored by the USTR to determine whether further U.S. action is necessary.
Following is an excerpt from the 2002 USTR report focusing on U.S. trading partners in Asia placed on the Priority Watch List:
(begin excerpt)
2002 SPECIAL 301 REPORT
2002 Special 301 Index --> Priority Watch List
PRIORITY WATCH LIST
...
INDONESIA
Indonesia demonstrated some improvements to its intellectual property rights regime in 2001. While Indonesia is responsive to private sector requests for enforcement assistance and welcomes input on draft legislation, overall enforcement of intellectual property rights, including that of trademarks, held by U.S. companies, remains weak. Industry reports a troubling increase in illegal production lines for optical media and pirated books far beyond Indonesia's domestic consumption capacity. Indonesia's judicial system continues to frustrate right-holders with years of delay and a pronounced lack of deterrent penalties. However, the U.S. Government is encouraged by several recent developments in Indonesia that may address some of the deficiencies listed in the action plan the United States provided Indonesia in January 2001. In particular, Indonesia prepared draft optical media regulations and established provisions for commercial courts throughout the country to process intellectual property rights cases within the country's district court system. The United States urges Indonesia to work with the U.S. Government to ensure that the draft regulations are adequate and effective prior to their enactment and to continue to develop specialized legal and judicial expertise for the prosecution of intellectual property rights violations. Rigorous enforcement in the near term of these regulations and of the copyright law against illegal optical disk producers is critical. The U.S. Government is providing an updated action plan to Indonesia that reflects these recent developments and further refines the specific benchmarks contained in the earlier action plan. The United States will conduct an Out-of-Cycle Review in the fall to assess progress toward achieving these benchmarks.
...
PHILIPPINES
Significant problems remain in ensuring adequate and effective protection of intellectual property rights in the Philippines. Legislation to fully implement its TRIPS Agreement commitments has been slow to develop, and enforcement efforts have had little deterrent effect on the extraordinary level of copyright piracy. The United States, however, is encouraged by President Macapagal-Arroyo's strong commitment to tackling intellectual property rights issues, and the United States welcomes the Supreme Court's recent ruling affirmatively establishing the ability of the court to grant ex parte search warrants. The United States hopes this ruling initiates a trend to improve the quality of the Philippines IPR-related laws and regulations. However, there remain many obstacles to the effective enforcement of intellectual property rights in the Philippines, including the low number of raids, insufficiently trained prosecutors, and procedural and judicial delays. Meanwhile, optical disk piracy and trademark counterfeiting continues to increase dramatically. The U.S. Government urges the Philippines to redouble its enforcement efforts across the board and to enact strong IPR laws and regulations, including a strong law to regulate the production of optical disks. The U.S. Government will conduct an OCR later in the year in order to monitor the situation in the Philippines.
...
TAIWAN
During the past year, Taiwan passed a number of new laws meant to strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights and bring the economy into compliance with its obligations under the TRIPS Agreement. These include certain amendments to its patent and copyright laws as well as new legislation to license the production of optical media, although the U.S. Government was disappointed that the optical media legislation was weakened before passage. Despite these positive steps, the lax protection of IPR in Taiwan remains very serious. U.S. companies report significant problems in being able to protect and enforce their intellectual property rights. Taiwan is one of the largest sources of pirated optical media products in the world. Its copyright law needs strengthening in a number of areas to deal with growing piracy. Corporate end-user piracy remains at a high level. Taiwan also suffers from trademark counterfeiting, including that of pharmaceuticals. Taiwan has only begun to take the steps necessary to enforce these new laws, particularly the optical media management statute. Nonetheless, the United States remains encouraged by the passage of these laws and the important first steps that have been taken in terms of implementation. The United States will continue our dialogue with Taiwan on the protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights during the coming year to help improve the situation.
...
(end excerpt)
(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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