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 China, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Czech Republic, France, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Jordan, Korea, Lebanon, Macau, Paraguay, Peru, the Philippines, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and Vietnam, among others. The United States commends these governments for setting a positive example and expects these measures to be fully implemented. The United States looks forward to the adoption by other governments of effective and transparent procedures to ensure legitimate use of software.

Implementation of the WTO TRIPS Agreement

The TRIPS Agreement, which requires all WTO members to provide certain minimum standards of IPR protection and enforcement, was one of the most significant achievements of the Uruguay Round. The TRIPS Agreement is the first broadly-subscribed multilateral intellectual property agreement that is subject to mandatory dispute settlement provisions.

Developed country members were required to implement the TRIPS Agreement fully as of January 1, 1996. Developing countries were given a transition period for many obligations until January 1, 2000. Recognizing the particular challenges faced by least-developed countries, in 2005 the United States worked closely with them and other WTO members to extend the implementation date for these countries from January 2006 to July 2013. The least developed country members in turn pledged to preserve the progress that some have already made toward TRIPS compliance. In addition, the least developed country members have until 2016 to implement their TRIPS obligations for patent and data protection for pharmaceutical products, as proposed by the United States at the Doha Ministerial conference of the WTO. The United States looks forward to the successful completion of this transition.

Developing country members continue to make progress toward full implementation of their TRIPS obligations. Nevertheless, certain members are still in the process of finalizing implementing legislation and many are still engaged in establishing adequate IPR enforcement mechanisms. Every year, the U.S. Government provides extensive technical assistance and training on the implementation of the TRIPS Agreement to a large number of U.S. trading partners. Such assistance is provided by a number of U.S. Government agencies, including the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the U.S. Copyright Office, the Department of State, the U.S. Agency for International Development, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Department of Justice, and the Department of Commerce. In addition, U.S. industry is actively involved in providing specific enforcement-oriented training in key markets around the world. The United States will continue to work with WTO members and expects further progress in the near term to complete the TRIPS implementation process. However, in those instances in which additional progress is not achieved, the United States will consider other means of encouraging implementation, including the possibility of recourse to dispute settlement consultations.

During 2006, the United States joined with the European Communities, Japan, and Switzerland to encourage a discussion within the WTO TRIPS Council of implementation of the enforcement-related provisions of the TRIPS Agreement. The United States hopes that the TRIPS Council can generate a useful sharing of experiences related to IPR enforcement, in the interest of ensuring effective implementation of enforcement obligations.