Page:Special 301 Report 2012.pdf/10

   States applauds Spain's adoption of regulations implementing the "Ley Sinde," a law to combat copyright piracy over the Internet. The United States will monitor the implementation of these measures and their overall effectiveness in addressing online piracy. The United States continues to have serious concerns with respect to criminal IPR enforcement, particularly the 2006 Prosecutor General Circular that appears to decriminalize peer-to-peer file sharing of infringing materials, and urges Spain to take steps to remedy this significant problem. The United States will work with Spain to address these and other issues.

Israel – Israel enacted a law protecting against the unfair commercial use, as well as unauthorized disclosure, of test or other data generated to obtain marketing approval of pharmaceutical products.

Philippines – The Philippines promulgated long-awaited specialized IPR procedural rules, which are designed to improve judicial efficiency in IPR cases.

Russia – Russia enacted a law to establish a specialized IPR court by February 2013 and appropriately amended its Criminal Code to revise criminal thresholds for copyright piracy. In addition, the United States recognizes progress in connection with criminal proceedings against interfilm.ru, an infringing website in Russia, and the civil findings against vKontakte, Russia's largest social networking site, for copyright infringement. Russian law enforcement authorities led several significant actions against pirated optical disc distributors, including a seizure of two million optical discs – the largest known such seizure in Russia. As part of the 2011 Out-of-Cycle Review (OCR) of Notorious Markets, USTR removed the Savelovskiy Market from the Notorious Markets List as a result of the Savelovskiy Market's adoption and implementation of an action plan to stop the distribution of infringing goods.

China – China has established a State Council-level leadership structure, headed by Vice Premier Wang Qishan, to lead and coordinate IPR enforcement across China. This leadership structure, which China established under the 2010-2011 Special IPR Campaign, and which China has now made into a permanent structure, is meant to enhance China's ability to address IPR infringement. In addition, China's leadership committed to increased political accountability, as the performance of provincial level officials will be measured based on enforcement of IPR in their regions.

Korea and Colombia – On March 15, 2012, the United States-Korea Free Trade Agreement entered into force. On May 15, 2012, the United States-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement will enter into force. Both Agreements include strong standards for the protection and enforcement of IPR. 

The United States will continue to work with its trading partners to further enhance IPR protection and enforcement during the coming year.

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