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Ireland. An attachment to this release, entitled Developments in Intellectual Property Rights, identifies the specific gains in these countries and others.
Details of Ambassador Barshefsky's Special 301 decisions are provided in the attached Fact Sheet.
Implementation of the WTO TRIPS Agreement
One of the most significant achievements of the Uruguay Round was negotiation of the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights Agreement (TRIPS), which requires all WTO Members to provide certain standards of protection for patents, copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, and other forms of intellectual property. The Agreement also requires countries to provide effective enforcement of these rights. In addition, the TRIPS Agreement is the first multilateral intellectual property agreement that is enforceable between governments, allowing them to resolve disputes through the WTO's dispute settlement provisions.
While developed countries are already required to fully implement TRIPS, developing countries were given a five year transition period -- until January 2000 -- to implement most of the Agreement's provisions. With respect to the protection of pharmaceuticals and agriculture chemicals, an even longer transition was provided. Ensuring that developing countries come into full compliance with the Agreement before the end of these transition periods is one of this Administration's highest priorities with respect to intellectual property rights.
Many countries have taken significant steps toward implementation of their TRIPS obligations over the past year. However, highlighting the importance of the obligation on developing countries to implement TRIPS by January 1, 2000, Ambassador Barshefsky made the following announcement:
"The United States Government expects these countries to meet their obligations. In December 1999, USTR will conduct a special out-of-cycle review to assess the progress made by developing countries toward full implementation of their TRIPS obligations. The United States will announce at the conclusion of this review in early January the actions it will take to address situations where WTO Members have failed to implement their obligations on January 1, 2000, including the possible initiation of additional dispute settlement cases."
In the interim, the United States will continue to consult with developing countries and to provide technical assistance bilaterally and in conjunction with multilateral organizations to assist members in meeting their obligations, as it had done since the Uruguay Round was concluded.
Controlling Optical Media Production
Several countries have implemented new measures, have taken important steps toward adopting, or have committed to adopt much needed controls on optical media production over the past year, including Hong Kong, Macau, Bulgaria, and Malaysia. However, other countries that are in
