IIPA Seeks PFC Designation for Seven Countries, Asks USTR to Keep 25 on Watch List

The International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) asked the USTR to maintain the priority foreign country (PFC) designations for Argentina, Chile, China, Costa Rica, India, Indonesia and Russia. The group also asked USTR to keep 25 nations on its so-called watch list and to restore PFC status to the Ukraine. The USTR-led Special 301 Committee met Feb. 20 whether to designate Ukraine as a PFC, the worst classification for IP protection under the Special 301 statute. The hearing focused on countries believed to deny adequate protection of IP or deny fair and equitable market access to U.S. citizens who rely on intellectual property protection under the so-called "Special 301" provisions of the Trade Act.

The IIPA urged USTR to elevate Ukraine to PFC status and eliminate the nation's duty-free access to the U.S. market under the Generalized System of Preferences program for what IIPA says are "severe legal and copyright enforcement problems." Ukraine had previously received PFC status but then gotten it removed. USTR should punish Ukraine again for displaying a "pervasive disregard" for U.S. IP rights, said IIPA counsel Eric Schwartz. Ukraine had failed to implement the IP action plan it developed with the U.S. in 2010 and still had an "exceedingly high" piracy rate, he said. Ukraine's government is implementing the IPR "action plan" it developed in consultation with the U.S. and hopes to fix remaining IP issues through forthcoming legislation, said Serhii Nalyvaiko, head of the State Intellectual Property Service of Ukraine's control over IP objects use division.

Ukraine's Ministry of Internal Affairs was taking the lead on implementation of the plan, moving to create a special cybercrime division within the ministry and hiring more police officers to enforce copyright protection, Nalyvaiko said. The government can only take action on copyright issues once it receives a criminal complaint from a copyright holder, and it rarely receives such complaints, he said. The ministry investigated 593 IPR-related criminal complaints during 2012 -- 401 involved infringement of copyright and related rights, 92 involved "illegal circulation" of disks for laser reading systems, 88 involved illegal use of trademarks on goods and services and 12 related to industrial property rights infringement, Ukraine said in written testimony (here). Of the 593 complaints the ministry received, 452 resulted in convictions, Ukraine said. The ministry seized more than 296,000 copies of products that violated IPR laws worth more than the Ukrainian equivalent of $1.1 million and nearly $4 million worth of counterfeit products that illegally used trademarks, Ukraine said

The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) said its members have "been unable to receive full royalties" from China and a group of Caribbean nations, said Joan McGivern, ASCAP senior vice president. China's broadcast tariffs are "exceedingly low," meaning ASCAP members are "uncompensated or, by global standards, grossly undercompensated" for the broadcast of U.S.-owned music on broadcast stations --- and not compensated at all for theatrical exhibitions of movies, McGivern said. Stations in Barbados and other Caribbean nations refuse to pay royalties for the performance of ASCAP members' music, while cable operators in Jamaica and the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago refuse to negotiate with foreign performing rights organizations, she said.-- Jimm Phillips

Correction: The International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) asked the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) to elevate Costa Rica to the Priority Watch List in the Special 301 process; IIPA also asked the USTR to keep Argentina, Chile, China, India, Indonesia, and Russia on the Priority Watch Lis