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 Trademarks and Domain Name Disputes

A growing area of concern for trademark holders is the protection of their trademarks against unauthorized uses under country code top level domain name (ccTLD) extensions. U.S. rights holders face significant trademark infringement, as well as losing valuable Internet traffic because of such uses. A related and growing concern is that certain ccTLDs lack transparent and predictable uniform domain name dispute resolution policies (UDRPs). Effective UDRPs should assist in the quick and efficient resolution of these disputes.

The United States encourages its trading partners to provide procedures that allow for the protection of trademarks used in domain names, and to ensure that dispute resolution procedures are available to effectively enforce against the misuse of trademarks.

Government Use of Software

Under Executive Order 13103 issued in September 1998, U.S. Government agencies maintain procedures to ensure that they use only authorized business software. Pursuant to the same directive, USTR has undertaken an initiative to work with other governments, particularly in countries that are modernizing their software systems or where concerns have been raised, to stop governmental use of illegal software. Considerable progress has been made under this initiative, leading to numerous trading partners mandating that only authorized, legitimate software may be used by their government bodies. Further work on this issue remains with certain trading partners, such as China, Costa Rica, India, Pakistan, Paraguay, Peru, Tajikistan, Turkey, Ukraine, and Vietnam. The United States urges trading partners to adopt and implement effective and transparent procedures to ensure legitimate governmental use of software.

Intellectual Property and Health Policy

Numerous comments in the 2013 Special 301 review highlighted important concerns arising at the intersection of IPR policy and health policy.

IP plays an important role in providing the incentives necessary for the development and marketing of new medicines. An effective, transparent, and predictable IP system is necessary for both manufacturers of innovative medicines and manufacturers of generic medicines.

The 2001 WTO Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health recognized the gravity of the public health problems afflicting many developing and least-developed countries, especially those resulting from HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and other epidemics. As affirmed in the Doha Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health, the United States respects a trading partner's right to protect public health and, in particular, to promote access to medicines for all and supports the vital role of the patent system in promoting the development and creation of new and innovative lifesaving medicines. The assessments set forth in this Report are based 22