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 Dominican Republic

The Dominican Republic remains on the Watch List. The Dominican Republic continued its efforts to implement its commitments under CAFTA-DR and the United States commends the Dominican Republic on its progress in combating television broadcast piracy. Additionally, the Dominican Republic has taken important steps to increase the efficiency and capacity of its patent office. However, the United States continues to be concerned about the persistence of various problems, including a need for increased cooperation among enforcement agencies, a failure to devote sufficient resources to IPR enforcement, and the failure to train enforcement officials. In addition, pirated and counterfeit goods remain widely available. The United States will continue to monitor the Dominican Republic's implementation of its bilateral and multilateral commitments to provide an effective system for protecting against unfair commercial use, as well as unauthorized disclosure, of undisclosed test and other data generated to obtain marketing approval for pharmaceutical and agricultural chemical products, and to provide an effective system to address patent issues expeditiously in connection with applications to market pharmaceutical products. The United States looks forward to continuing its engagement on these and other matters with the Dominican Republic and will monitor the Dominican Republic's implementation of its commitments under CAFTA-DR.

Ecuador

Ecuador remains on the Watch List. The United States welcomes the progress Ecuador achieved with respect to IPR protection and enforcement in 2010. Ecuador's IPR undertakings included an enforcement campaign that Ecuador's Intellectual Property Institute (IEPI) initiated. That campaign includes efforts to work directly with shop owners at large markets to ensure that those shop owners do not offer pirated or counterfeit products. IEPI has also begun efforts to extend its services to other areas of the country and to facilitate access to patent information. Ecuador has expanded its IPR educational efforts by conducting a multimedia public awareness campaign and by training the public on IPR matters. However, there are still concerns about the widespread availability of pirated and counterfeit products in retail markets in Ecuador, and about the lack of specialized IPR courts. Such courts were required under Ecuador's 1998 IPR law. The United States encourages Ecuador to implement a recently promulgated regulation regarding protection against unfair commercial use, as well as unauthorized disclosure, of undisclosed test or other data generated to obtain marketing approval for pharmaceutical products. Ecuador should provide an effective system to address patent issues expeditiously in connection with applications to market pharmaceutical products. The United Sates will continue to monitor developments concerning compulsory licensing of pharmaceutical and agricultural chemical products in Ecuador, bearing in mind the discussion of the Doha Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health in Section I of this Report. The United States looks forward to continuing to work with Ecuador address these and other matters.

Egypt

Egypt remains on the Watch List. Egypt continued to make progress towards improving its IPR regime in 2010. One highlight was the establishment of the National Observatory for Industry Products, an organization that inspects goods for patent and trademark infringement. Egypt also conducted campaigns to raise public awareness about counterfeit pharmaceutical products. However, several obstacles to effective IPR protection and enforcement remain. These include