IIPA, Others Urge Keeping China, India on USTR Priority Watch List

The International Intellectual Property Alliance was one of several industry groups that indicated Thursday it would submit comments to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative pushing for China, India and Russia to remain on the office's mid-tier Special 301 priority watch list for copyright and other IP rights violations. USTR was to collect comments through midnight Thursday on its annual Special 301 review on the global status of IP rights enforcement. China, India and Russia have long occupied USTR's priority watch list, which included eight other countries when USTR released its 2016 report (see 1604270049).

IIPA recommended USTR place five other countries on the list: Chile, Mexico, Taiwan, Ukraine and Vietnam. USTR included Chile and Ukraine on the mid-tier list in 2016, and Mexico and Vietnam were on the lower-tier watch list. “The market for creative works in Taiwan continued to deteriorate in 2016 due to the incessant growth of digital piracy, which has created an environment inimical to legitimate content producers,” IIPA said. In recent years, it said, “Taiwan has not made any progress towards meeting the challenges of the digital age and protecting creative investment, whether foreign or homegrown.”

IIPA also recommended USTR place eight countries on the lower-tier watch list: Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Indonesia, Peru, Switzerland, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates. The office included 23 countries on the lower-tier list, including Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Peru and Switzerland. USTR placed Indonesia and Thailand on its 2016 priority watch list. USTR should move Indonesia to the lower-tier list because its government “made an important step in 2016 toward improving market access,” held to its commitment to combat online piracy and worked with music rightsholders to “facilitate the exercise of newly enacted rights for performing artists and record producers,” IIPA said. Thailand deserves to be moved to the lower-tier list because its government continued in 2016 to “to press forward with copyright reforms intended to help Thailand meet the challenges of the digital age,” including passage of the Computer Crime Act, IIPA said.

IIPA said it believes “entrenchment of infringing services is the leading barrier impeding the full access of U.S. creators and rights holders into markets worldwide,” though it said USTR correctly identified online piracy as the “most challenging copyright enforcement issue in many trading partner markets.” Other ongoing issues include set-top boxes and other devices that allow users to stream pirated content, stream-ripping services and circumvention of technological protection measures, IIPA said.

BSA|The Software Alliance urged USTR to keep Argentina, Chile, China, India, Indonesia, Russia and Ukraine on the priority watch list and add Vietnam to that list. BSA urged USTR to place nine countries on the lower-tier list: Brazil, Greece, Kazakhstan, Korea, Mexico, Nigeria, Romania, Thailand and Turkey. The group urged USTR to list Spain as a “country of concern” and the EU as a “region of concern.” Vietnam deserves to be elevated to the priority watch list because its government has “enacted, implemented or proposed measures for regulating the [IT] sector [that] are likely to reduce fair and equitable market access for BSA members wishing to provide software products and online service,” the group said.

The Computer & Communications Industry Association was likely to file comments that would again highlight its past concerns on “a number of IP-related obstacles,” including a substantial discussion of the group's concerns about “ancillary copyright laws,” which allow for taxes on quotations and snippets used in news reports, said Vice President-Law and Policy Matthew Schruers in an interview. Tech sector groups noted concerns about ancillary copyright laws during USTR's 2016 Special 301 proceeding (see 1603010060). Such laws have also factored into U.S. stakeholders' opposition to the a European Commission copyright law revamp proposal (see 1608290062). CCIA was also likely to raise concerns about intermediaries' liability for IP infringement, Schruers said. CCIA was likely to revisit concerns it highlighted in past Special 301 proceedings because USTR “didn't meaningfully respond” in past reports, he said.

Knowledge Ecology International intended its comments to serve as a “transition-type memo” for President Donald Trump's administration, highlighting “positive areas” for IP-related trade policy rather than seek USTR categorization of particular countries, said Director James Love in an interview. “We already know companies will complain about the usual suspects,” including Brazil and China, Love said. “We view this as an opportunity to rethink what's in the U.S.' best interest” in trade policy. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Global Intellectual Property Center said it also planned to file comments.