The Notorious Markets List (“List”) highlights select online and physical marketplaces that reportedly engage in and facilitate substantial copyright piracy and trademark counterfeiting. The Office of the United States Trade Representative (“USTR”) has developed the List under the auspices of the annual Special 301 process.2 USTR solicited comments regarding which markets to highlight in this year’s List through a Request for Public Comments published in the Federal Register (www.regulations.gov, Docket Number USTR-2014-0017). The List is based on publicly-available information. USTR selected markets not only because they exemplify global concerns about counterfeiting and piracy, but also because the scale of infringing activity in such markets can cause economic harm to U.S. IPR holders. Some of the identified markets reportedly host a combination of legitimate and unauthorized activities. Others reportedly exist solely to engage in or facilitate unauthorized activity. The List does not purport to be an exhaustive list of all physical and online markets worldwide in which IPR infringement takes place.
