February 18, 2005
The Office of the US Trade Representative, calling Taiwan's efforts to combat intellectual property rights infringements over the last year "commendable," in mid-January announced the removal of Taiwan from the Special 301 Priority Watch List after completing an out-of-cycle review started last fall. After four straight years on the Priority Watch List, Taiwan now finds itself on the less stringent Special 301 Watch List.
USTR cited Taiwan's "significant progress" in the areas of fighting commercial piracy and strengthening IPR laws as reasons for it being moved to the Watch List. Last year, Taiwan revised its Copyright Law, provided IPR training for judges and prosecutors, made preparations for the establishment of an IPR court and stepped up police work targeting pirated goods on the streets and illegal IPR exports.
Despite this progress, USTR said Taiwan still needs to improve the protection of the data exclusivity of pharmaceutical products and bolster IPR regulations related to agrochemical products. USTR told Taiwan it is also highly concerned about the illegal downloading of music from the Internet and the export of pirated computer software.
While expressing the government's appreciation for the USTR's decision,
MOEA Intellectual Property Office Director-general Tsai Lien-sheng said that Taiwan is continuing to tackle IPR issues with which the United States is concerned and added that he is confident Taiwan will be completely taken off the Special 301 list this year.
(United Daily News, Taipei Times)
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