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 Georgia adopted a new Criminal Code, which came into force on February 15th and which provides for criminal penalties for copyright and neighboring right violations.

Kyrgyz Republic adopted a new Criminal Code, which came into force on February 15th and which provides for criminal penalties for copyright and neighboring right violations.

Turkey passed amendments to its Copyright Law, which is designed to bring Turkey into compliance with the TRIPS Agreement.

Ecuador acceded to the Patent Cooperation Treaty.

President Kim of Korea issued public orders to the Ministries of Information and Communications and the Ministry of Justice to strengthen their copyright enforcement efforts. 

March

 Brazil established an interagency intellectual property rights committee, coordinated by the Ministry of Justice, to improve anti-piracy enforcement.

<li>The United States, Greece and the European Union notified the WTO Dispute Settlement Body that a mutually satisfactory solution to their copyright enforcement case had been reached.</li>

<li>On March 16, Mongolia notified its ratification of the Madrid Protocol, which will come into effect for Mongolia on June 16.</li>

<li>On March 28, the Danish Parliament passed a bill that was signed into law to make available ex parte search remedies in intellectual property enforcement actions. As a result of this legislation, Denmark and the United States intend to notify the WTO that a mutually satisfactory solution has been reached in this case on this matter.</li>

<li>Nepal joins the Paris Convention.</li> </ul>

April

<ul> <li>Hong Kong's amendments to its Copyright Ordinance, clarifying that end-user software piracy is a criminal offense, became effective April 1.</li>

<li>The European Union's Council of Ministers approved amendments to the Copyright Directive on April 9. The Copyright Directive should provide significant legal protection for technological measures and spur development of the Information Society.</li>

<li>Slovenia approved legislation enacting data exclusivity protection.</li> </ul>