MANILA – The Philippines has sustained its good record in United States’ intellectual property rights (IPR) watch list for four consecutive years.
In its US Trade Representative (USTR) 2017 Special 301 Report, the Philippines is not in the Priority Watch List nor in the Watch List, maintaining a clean record since 2014.
It was in 2014 when USTR removed the country from the watch list, after being cited in the report for 25 years since 1989.
Meanwhile, the 2017 USTR report noted that the Philippines has adopted laws and enforcement practices designed to prevent unauthorized camcoding, to avoid online piracy and broadcast piracy.
The Special 301 Report is an annual review of the US on IPR protection and enforcement among US’ trading partners to protect the state’s inventors, creators, brands, manufacturers, and service providers.
These countries were under the Priority Watch List this year: include Algeria, Argentina, Chile, China, India, Indonesia, Kuwait, Russia, Thailand, Ukraine, and Venezuela.
These countries were identified in the Watch List category: Barbados, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Greece, Guatemala, Jamaica, Lebanon, Mexico, Pakistan, Peru, Romania, Switzerland, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam.
