Asian nations on piracy blacklist<\/p>\n
Agence France-Presse, Washington<\/p>\n
China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan and the Philippines led a
\nblacklist of Asian copyright violators released Friday by the
\nUnited States, which sought tough action to combat piracy and
\ncounterfeiting of U.S. goods.<\/p>\n
One country, Ukraine, remained in the category of worst
\noffenders on copyright infringement as a \"priority foreign
\ncountry,\" with US$75 million in sanctions still in place, the
\noffice of the U.S. Trade Representative said.<\/p>\n
A total of 14 nations were placed on a \"priority watch list,\"
\nwith China added to the list this year.<\/p>\n
The others included Argentina, Brazil, Egypt, India,
\nIndonesia, Israel, Kuwait, Lebanon, Pakistan, the Philippines,
\nRussia, Turkey, and Venezuela.<\/p>\n
The USTR said that while infringement levels remained
\n\"unacceptably high\" throughout China, in spite of Beijing's
\nefforts to reduce them, there was some progress in the region in
\nprotecting intellectual property rights.<\/p>\n
It cited Indonesia and the Philippines, which recently passed
\nlegislation to combat optical media piracy and Malaysia and
\nTaiwan, which had begun to take more enforcement actions, as well
\nas India's passage of a new law to improve patent protection.<\/p>\n
Acting Trade Representative Peter Allgeier indicated that
\nIndia might receive benefits for taking some firm measures.<\/p>\n
\"India took a significant step to improve its patent
\nprotection regime this year with passage of a new Patent
\nAmendment,\" Allgeier said.<\/p>\n
\"We will closely monitor implementation of the amendment, and
\nwe are considering actions that would acknowledge progress in
\nthis area.\"<\/p>\n
The USTR elevated China to the \"priority watch list\" because
\nof \"serious concerns about China's compliance with its
\nobligations\" under the World Trade Organization rules and joint
\ncommitments.<\/p>\n
Economies on the list do not provide an adequate level of
\nprotection or enforcement of intellectual property rights, or
\nmarket access for persons relying on that protection.<\/p>\n
The USTR uses a three-step warning list to designate countries
\naccording to the degree of abuses.<\/p>\n
The priority watch list is the second most serious of the
\nthree, below \"Priority Foreign Countries,\" which China was listed
\non in 1994 but then removed after striking a bilateral agreement
\nwith the U.S. government.<\/p>\n
This year's \"Special 301\" report on the adequacy and
\neffectiveness of protection for intellectual property was based
\non an annual review under the section of U.S. law for which it is
\nnamed.<\/p>\n
Among the 36 trading partners on the \"watch list\" -- which
\nentails \"bilateral attention to address underlying IPR problems\"
\n-- were South Korea, Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.<\/p>\n
South Korea was lowered from the priority watch list in 2004.<\/p>\n
This year's report also announced so called \"out-of-cycle\"
\nreview for seven countries, including the Philippines and
\nIndonesia.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/asian-nations-on-piracy-blacklist-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}