USTR issues Special 301 report relating to IPR

The United States Trade Representative (USTR) this week issued the Special 301 Report, an annual review of the state of intellectual property rights (IPR) protection and enforcement in trading partners around world, which the USTR conducts pursuant to Section 182 of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended by the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988 and the Uruguay Round Agreements Act (enacted in 1994). The full report is available at: http://www.ustr.gov/sites/default/files/2012%20Special%20301%20Report_0.pdf

The 2012 Special 301 review process examined IPR protection and enforcement in 77 trading partners. Following extensive research and analysis, USTR has listed the 40 trading partners below as follows:

Priority Watch List: Algeria, Argentina, Canada, Chile, China, India, Indonesia, Israel, Pakistan, Russia, Thailand, Ukraine, Venezuela.
Watch List: Belarus, Bolivia, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Finland, Greece, Guatemala, Italy, Jamaica, Kuwait, Lebanon, Mexico, Norway, Peru, Philippines, Romania, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam.
Section 306 Monitoring: Paraguay.