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

Best IPR Practices by Trading Partners

USTR highlights the following best practices by trading partners in the area of IPR protection and enforcement.

 USTR continues to encourage trading partners to work with the United States to develop action plans to advance the protection and enforcement of IPR. USTR welcomes the offer of the Government of Bulgaria to develop an action plan, and is working with a number of other trading partners, including the Government of Pakistan, to develop action plans to address the issues discussed in the Special 301 Report. USTR looks forward to continuing to work with these trading partners to finalize and implement these action plans as well as to work with other trading partners on implementing existing action plans.

USTR supports transparency and meaningful stakeholder participation in the development of laws, regulations, procedures, and other measures as well as meaningful engagement between governments and stakeholders. Stakeholders report that such transparency and participation allows governments to avoid unintended consequences and makes it easier for stakeholders to comply with legislative or regulatory changes once adopted and implemented.

Cooperation among different government agencies is another example of a best practice. Several countries, including the United States, have introduced IPR enforcement coordination mechanisms or agreements to enhance interagency cooperation. In Paraguay, DINAPI, operational since October 2013, has signed several inter-institutional agreements to enhance cooperation on IPR, including with Paraguayan enforcement agencies that have jurisdiction over customs and other IP-related violations. In Algeria, the National Office of Intellectual Property Rights (ONDA) signed cooperation agreements with Algerian customs and other Algerian law enforcement entities on training and operational coordination to strengthen efforts to interdict illicit goods. The Philippines' National IPR Committee, led by that country's Intellectual Property Office, provides another example of enhanced interagency cooperation. The United States encourages other trading partners to consider adopting similar cooperative IPR arrangements.

Several trading partners have participated or supported participation in innovative mechanisms that enable government and private sector rights holders to voluntarily donate or license IPR on mutually agreed terms and conditions. In these arrangements, parties use existing IPR to advance innovation and public policy goals. The United   12