Argentina, Chile y Venezuela, los "alumnos reprobados" del Special Report 301-2013 de EE.UU.

Como es habitual, acaba de publicarse la versión 2013 del Special Report 301 preparado por la Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR). De Iberoamérica Argentina, Chile y Venezuela siguen este año en la “lista negra” de violación de los derechos de propiedad intelectual (Priority Watch List). España quedó fuera de la lista, igual que Brasil y Portugal. Ucrania ha sido el peor evaluado por Estados Unidos.

La inclusión de Argentina por parte de los Estados Unidos en este desdoroso ranking se basa -según el reporte-, en la piratería desenfrenada y la falsificación, incluyendo el entorno digital; en un sistema judicial ineficiente que requiere más sentencias disuasorias, y en el eterno tema de las patentes farmacéuticas.

Sobre Venezuela se dijo algo similar: que los EE.UU. siguen preocupados por la creciente piratería y la falsificación, incluida la piratería a través de Internet. Y alientan a un sistema de protección eficaz contra el uso comercial desleal, y la divulgación no autorizada de pruebas u otros datos no divulgados generados para obtener la aprobación de comercialización de productos farmacéuticos. 

En cuanto a Chile (que se supone un alumno adelantado) EE.UU. fue especialmente severo en su apreciación, haciendo magno eco de los intereses de su industria y centros de interés: En efecto, el reporte sostiene que EE.UU. sigue preocupado respecto a temas de propiedad intelectual vigentes de acuerdo con el TLC con Chile. Si bien reconoce que el país austral tomó algunas medidas en 2012 para generar una nueva legislación [con una reforma completa ad portas] lo insta a implementar un sistema eficaz para hacer frente con urgencia a problemas de patentes en conexión con solicitudes de comercialización de productos farmacéuticos. Además, observa que debe mejorarse la protección tanto en contra de la elusión ilegal de medidas tecnológicas, como de señales de satélite cifradas portadoras de programas. Además insta a una mejora de procedimientos administrativos y judiciales así como el aporte de recursos disuasivos en favor de los titulares de derechos de satélite y proveedores de servicios por cable. Finalmente, y para rematar, instan a ofrecer una protección adecuada contra el uso comercial desleal, así como la divulgación no autorizada, de prueba u otros datos generados para obtener la aprobación de comercialización de productos farmacéuticos, y modificar su régimen de responsabilidad de proveedores de servicios de Internet (ISP) para permitir una acción eficaz contra la piratería.

El gobierno de Chile no se quedó de brazos cruzados y desconoció la inclusión en la "lista roja" a través de una declaración pública de la Dirección de Relaciones Económicas Internacionales (Direcon) por estar fuera de los límites del TLC entre ambos países: “a pesar de los avances realizados en estas materias, Chile ha sido, una vez más, catalogado unilateralmente por EEUU en la lista de vigilancia prioritaria”, lo que a su juicio “está fuera de los márgenes del Tratado de Libre Comercio suscrito entre nuestro país y EE.UU. y, por lo tanto, no es reconocido por Chile como un instrumento válido de calificación”. 

La conclusión de Chile es clara: "el Reporte Especial 301 carece de criterios claros para catalogar a los distintos países sino que es más bien un reflejo de los intereses de la industria norteamericana de aplicar selectivamente sus estándares de propiedad intelectual a otros países".

La Direcon destaca que Chile tiene como objetivo promover la innovación y la adecuada protección y el debido acceso a la propiedad intelectual por lo que “el reporte especial 301 no refleja el compromiso y los avances que Chile ha logrado en esta materia”. Pese a ello, explican que se seguirá avanzando en el respeto de las obligaciones internacionales, coordinando intersectorialmente y buscando resultados balanceados en la elaboración e implementación de políticas públicas, así como también en los distintos foros internacionales en los que el país participa. 

El ranking completo de los países "observados", es el siguiente: 

Priority Foreign Country: Ucrania

Priority Watch List: Argelia, Argentina, Chile, China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Rusia, Tailandia, Venezuela. 

Watch List: Barbados, Bielorrusia, Bolivia, Brasil, Bulgaria, Canadá, Colombia, Costa Rica, República Dominicana, Ecuador, Egipto, Finlandia, Grecia, Guatemala, Israel, Italia, Jamaica, Kuwait, Líbano, México, Paraguay, Perú, Filipinas, Rumania, Tayikistán, Trinidad y Tobago, Turquía, Turkmenistán, Uzbekistán, Vietnam.

Fuente: http://www.ustr.gov / www.direcon.cl 

Priority Watch List 2012 is out! Chile (again), Argentina and Venezuela in danger zone

On Monday, the United States Trade Representative published its annual "Special 301 Report," detailing the state of intellectual property rights around the world with American trading partners. Argentina, Chile, Venezuela, India, and Canada were given the honor of being on the "priority watch list" (with China, Russia, and others countries).

Chile remains on the Priority Watch List in 2012. The report said about this country: "[In] 2011, Chile took steps towards addressing some, but not all, outstanding IPR issues under the United States-Chile Free Trade Agreement. Recent action included accession to the Convention Relating to the Distribution of Programme Carrying Signals Transmitted by Satellite and the Trademark Law Treaty. Chile has also taken steps toward acceding to and ratifying the International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants. While this progress is welcome, major issues remain outstanding. The United States urges Chile to implement an effective system for addressing patent issues expeditiously in connection with applications to market pharmaceutical products. The United States also continues to urge Chile to implement protections against the circumvention of technological protection measures and protections for encrypted program-carrying satellite signals, and to ensure that effective administrative and judicial procedures, as well as deterrent remedies are made available to rights holders. The United States also urges Chile to provide adequate protection against unfair commercial use, as well as unauthorized disclosure, of undisclosed test or other data generated to obtain marketing approval for pharmaceutical products, and to amend its Internet service provider liability regime to permit effective action against piracy over the Internet. The United States will continue to work with Chile to resolve these and other issues, including through the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations".

Argentina, meanwhile, was cited specifically for "piracy over the Internet," while India has faced American criticism over generic knock-offs of pharmaceutical drugs, a case the Indian Supreme Court heard earlier this year.

About Venezuela said:  "[V]enezuela made some progress in 2011, notably through the seizure of a larger number of counterfeit and pirated products than in previous years and through steps to enforce the 2010 Law on Crimes and Contraband, including the penalty provisions of that law. However, serious concerns remain with respect to IPR protection and enforcement.  [...] Venezuela also should provide an effective system for protecting against the unfair commercial use, as well as unauthorized disclosure, of test or other data generated to obtain marketing approval for pharmaceutical products. The United States will continue to monitor Venezuela’s progress on these and other issues".

Source: http://www.ustr.gov/ 

Chile remains on the Priority Watch List

The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) released its annual Special 301 Report on the adequacy and effectiveness of U.S. trading partners’ protection of intellectual property rights.(IPR). Despite its efforts Chile remains on the Priority Watch List for fifth year. Argentina and Venezuela are included too. The report says: The United States welcomes the Piñera Administration's significant commitment to address outstanding IPR issues under the United States-Chile Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in 2011. Positive steps taken in 2010 include the launch of a Ministerial-level interagency committee on IPR with a mandate to examine these issues, and the implementation of the new copyright legislation. In addition, Chile ratified the Convention Relating to the Distribution of Programme-Carrying Signals Transmitted by Satellites (Brussels Convention) and the Trademark Law Treaty. The United States encourages Chile to take further action by acceding to, and ratifying, the International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants. The United States also encourages Chile to implement its commitment to provide an effective system to address patent issues expeditiously in connection with applications to market pharmaceutical products, to implement protections against the circumvention of technological protection measures, to implement protection for encrypted program-carrying satellite signals, and to ensure that administrative and judicial procedures and deterrent remedies are made available to rights holders. The United States also urges Chile to provide adequate protection against unfair commercial use, as well as unauthorized disclosure, of undisclosed test or other data generated to obtain marketing approvals for pharmaceutical products, and to amend its Internet service provider liability regime to permit effective action against any act of infringement of copyright and related rights. The United States commends Chile's efforts and looks forward to continued engagement with Chile to resolve these and other matters.

The USTR report reviewed 77 countries for this year, and placed 42 countries on the Priority Watch List, Watch List, or the Section 306 monitoring list.

Twelve countries are on the Priority Watch List: China, Russia, Algeria, Argentina, Canada, Chile, India, Indonesia, Israel, Pakistan, Thailand, and Venezuela.  

Twenty-nine countries are on the Watch List: Belarus, Bolivia, Brazil, Brunei, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Finland, Greece, Guatemala, Italy, Jamaica, Kuwait, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mexico, Norway, Peru, Philippines, Romania, Spain, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam.

Source: www.ustr.gov

Chile: he is coming, he is coming! -- President Obama's visit

The Chilean newspaper El Mercurio approaches today President Barack Obama’s visit to Chile (in a month time). It refers to the tight agenda and two of the main topics that are to be discussed, namely energy and intellectual property.
Javier Irarrázaval, the Chamber of Commerce Chilean-American (Amcham) president , believes that president Obama's visit will be a very good opportunity to strengthen the strategic alliance that Chile and the U.S. began in 2008 on energy.
"The United States has positioned itself as a leader. It takes the lead as a supplier, developer and patent holder in virtually all technologies" he says.

Continuing he states that Amcham has concerns in the scenario faced by Chile. "If we want to grow and generate business we need energy at competitive costs". Mr Irarrázaval, who is in favour of sustainable sources, emphasizes the need to be realistic.

The second point to be raised in this visit will be the protection of intellectual property. In 2010, Chile ranked for the fourth time on the ‘Priority Watch List’, which groups countries that lack intellectual property protection. Mr Irarrázaval asserts that they “do not want to continue on the Watch List”. He appears to be astonished to the fact that in Chile there is not the necessary protection to safeguard industrial property, because according to him (and I guess every reader on this blog), this fact undermines entrepreneurship and innovation.

The US Reporting on IPRs - the Watch List

The "Special 301 Report" issued by the Representative Office of U.S. Foreign Trade (USTR), has been published. This report provides a level of effectiveness of U.S. trading partners’ protection of intellectual property rights (IPR).

For this year report, USRR considered 77 trading partners and placed 41 countries on the Priority Watch List, Watch List, or the Section 306 monitoring list.

On the Priority Watch List are those countries that do not provide an adequate level of IPR protection or enforcement, they are China, Russia, Algeria, Argentina, Canada, Chile, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Thailand, and Venezuela.

As you can see, Chile is included (for the fourth consecutive year) in the Priority Watch List which means that its efforts and improvements in the IP area have not been good enough. Note that a few weeks ago this blog reported that Chile was off the IP Red List in the EU.

Others Latin America countries that are in the report but on the lower-level Watch List are: Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico and Peru.

Finally, Paraguay is on the section 306 monitoring list.

Here for the full report.