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 SAUDI ARABIA

Saudi Arabia has made great strides in fighting copyright piracy and trademark counterfeiting over the past year. Patent protection also received a boost when the recently established judicial Patent Committee, issued its first decision, found in favor of the patent holder against an infringer. Saudi Arabia is also working to revise its intellectual property laws, issuing amendments to the trademark law last August and working to issue new copyright and patent legislation. However, the United States remains concerned about continued high losses experienced by U.S. copyright and trademark-based industries. The lack of deterrent penalties and lack of transparency in the enforcement, prosecutorial, and judicial processes severely undermine the protection of intellectual property rights in Saudi Arabia. We look to Saudi Arabia to continue its enforcement efforts; ensure that the judicial system reinforces these actions with serious and consistent sentencing, including deterrent fines and penalties; and to improve transparency in the enforcement, prosecutorial, and judicial processes.

SLOVAK REPUBLIC

The Slovak Republic was added to the Watch List in 2001 because it lacks protection for confidential pharmaceutical test data submitted to obtain marketing approval. There is no evidence that the situation has improved. The United States remains concerned about the lack of this important protection, which is a TRIPS requirement. In the area of copyright piracy, home CD-burning is on the rise and pirate CDs continue to be available on the public market in Eastern Slovakia.

TAJIKISTAN

Tajikistan has yet to fulfill all of its intellectual property rights commitments under the 1993 U.S.-Tajikistan Trade Agreement. Specifically, Tajikistan is not yet a party to the Geneva Phonograms Convention, nor does it provide any protection to U.S. and other foreign sound recordings, or retroactive protection for works or sound recordings under its Copyright Law. Criminal penalties for intellectual property rights violations have not yet been adopted as required by the bilateral trade agreement. In addition, Tajikistan also does not provide ex officio authority to commence criminal cases. We call on Tajikistan to make improvements and enforcement of its existing laws an immediate priority.

THAILAND

A public education campaign, and a recent coordination of its IPR agencies provide some hope for the coming year with respect to the protection of intellectual property in Thailand. It passed a Trade Secrets law, which it is preparing to implement. The Royal Thai Government organized the 13 agencies responsible for IPR issues to develop a more coordinated campaign against piracy, which began in early April 2003. However, we are concerned with the explosion of copyright May 1, 2003