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  The Criminal Circuit court for Panama City issued a finding of "criminally responsible" against a video store owner for violations of the copyright law on March 10; this represents the first criminal conviction in Panama for copyright infringement.

The Colon Free Zone (CFZ) in Panama inaugurated its department of intellectual property to coordinate IPR enforcement actions in the CFZ on March 25.

The Korean Government opened a Patent Court on March 1.

The Korean Government adopted the International Classification System and the amended Trademark and Industrial Design Laws went into effect on March 1.

On March 30th, United States Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky announced that the United States partially suspended trade benefits that Honduras receives under the Generalized System of Preferences and Caribbean Basin Initiative programs as a result of Honduras' continued failure to provide adequate and effective IP protection.

In Australia, legislation to extend patent protection for pharmaceuticals passed the House and was introduced into the Senate. 

April

 <li>Cyprus' Parliament passed a new patent law that is reportedly one of the strongest in the region.</li>

<li>Bolivia signed an IP side letter to our bilateral investment treaty committing to bring its law into compliance with TRIPS within twelve months.</li>

<li>Guatemala's Congress passed new copyright legislation.</li>

<li>Ecuador's Congress passed new intellectual property rights legislation on April 22.</li>

<li>Ecuador's Constitutional Tribunal upheld the legality of pipeline patents on April 23.</li>

<li>The Government of Sweden published amendments to its copyright law which provide for provisional ex parte relief in civil cases.</li>

<li>On April 28, the Government of Greece closed 20 television stations that did not submit license applications by the March 23 deadline.</li>

<li>On April 24, a Dutch court upheld the confidentiality of pharmaceutical test data submitted to regulatory authorities.</li> </ul>