Watch List: Barbados; Belarus; Bolivia; Brazil; Bulgaria; Canada; Colombia; Costa Rica; Dominican Republic; Egypt; Greece; Guatemala; Jamaica; Lebanon; Mexico; Paraguay; Peru; Romania; Tajikistan; Trinidad and Tobago; Turkey; Turkmenistan; Uzbekistan; and Vietnam.[1]
Out-of-Cycle Reviews
An Out-of-Cycle Review (OCR) is a tool that USTR uses to encourage progress on IPR issues of concern. OCRs provide an opportunity for heightened engagement and cooperation with trading partners and other stakeholders to address and remedy such issues.
Country-Specific Out-of-Cycle Reviews
OCRs focus on identified IPR challenges in specific trading partner markets. Successful resolution of specific IPR issues of concern can lead to a positive change in a trading partner's Special 301 status outside of the typical time frame for the annual review. Conversely, failure to address identified IPR concerns, or further deterioration as to an IPR-related concern within the specified timeframe, can lead to an adverse change in status.
In the coming months, USTR will conduct several OCRs, including of the following trading partners.
- USTR has noted the willingness of two Watch List countries, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan, to work with the United States on improving their IPR protection and enforcement regimes and will conduct an OCR for each country to evaluate whether specific steps taken merit their removal from the Watch List.
- USTR will conduct an OCR of Honduras, which is not listed in the 2015 Report, to determine whether to place that country on the Watch List. This OCR will assess whether Honduras has acted to address widespread cable and satellite signal piracy, including through increased regulatory oversight, strengthened criminal IPR enforcement capacity, increased clarity in procedures relating to geographical indications, and improved the protection of test or other data generated to obtain marketing approval for certain regulated products.
- USTR extends the current OCR of Paraguay, which is currently on the Watch List, to provide additional time for conclusion of a bilateral IPR Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). USTR encourages Paraguay to conclude the MOU by June 30, 2015, and notes that,
- ↑ The regulatory framework in Finland regarding process patents filed before 1995, and pending in 1996, denies adequate protection to many of the top-selling U.S. pharmaceutical products currently on the Finnish market. Given that the term for such patents is set to expire shortly, Finland is removed from the WL in 2015.
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