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 ECUADOR

Ecuador will remain on the Watch List in 2009. Ecuador's Intellectual Property Institute continued to make progress in 2008 towards eliminating its backlog of pending patent applications. Further, Ecuador has established special IPR units for investigations and seizures of pirated and counterfeit products. Despite these achievements, overall IPR enforcement in Ecuador remains a serious problem, resulting in high piracy levels in the software, publishing, recording, and film industries. Concerns also remain regarding Ecuador's lack of effective protection against unfair commercial use of undisclosed test or other data generated to obtain marketing approval for pharmaceutical products, as well as Ecuador's lack of an effective system to prevent the issuance of marketing approvals for unauthorized copies of patented pharmaceutical products. The United States urges Ecuador to strengthen its IPR regime and to enhance its IPR enforcement efforts and will monitor Ecuador's efforts to address these concerns.

EGYPT

Egypt will remain on the Watch List in 2009. Egypt stated in its Special 301 submission that it will be amending its laws and joining several international IPR conventions to increase IPR protection in Egypt, which the United States views as positive steps. In 2008, Egypt passed a law establishing new economic courts that will provide specialized training to judges and will have jurisdiction over civil and criminal IPR cases. We note some improvements in IPR protection and enforcement over the past year, particularly in the area of enforcement against entertainment and business software piracy by Egypt's Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA). Specifically, ITIDA reported on an increased number of raids, improved cooperation between ITIDA and U.S. industries on enforcement, and several IPR court cases that resulted in criminal convictions with sentences of imprisonment for IPR offenders, a new trend in Egypt for IPR cases. Serious concerns remain, however, about weak copyright enforcement by the Ministry of Culture against piracy of books, music, and films, which the U.S. copyright industries describe as virtually unchecked. The United States urges Egypt to take strong action against piracy of books, music, and films, comparable with the commendable enforcement actions taken against software piracy. U.S. industries report the recent growth in Internet piracy, which needs to be effectively addressed by law enforcement officials and courts. With respect to pharmaceutical products, the United States recognizes the Ministry of Health's efforts to combat counterfeit pharmaceuticals, streamline its regulatory processes for pharmaceutical products, and to establish a website to increase transparency. We continue to urge the Ministry of Health, however, to clarify its commitment to protection against unfair commercial use of undisclosed test or other data generated to obtain marketing approval for pharmaceutical products, and to provide an effective system to prevent the issuance of marketing approvals for unauthorized copies of patented pharmaceutical products. We intend to continue our in-depth IPR discussions with Egypt and will continue to work closely with Egypt on improving its IPR regime.