Washington, D.C. -
U.S. Trade Representative Susan C. Schwab today announced the results of USTR's
Out-of-Cycle Review of intellectual property rights (IPR) protection and
enforcement in the Czech
Republic under the “Special 301” provisions of U.S.
trade law. As a result of the
review, the Czech
Republic will be placed on
the Special 301 Watch List.
"We remain concerned at the
continuing lack of effective enforcement measures against traders openly selling
pirated and counterfeit goods in the notorious border markets," said Ambassador
Schwab. “Intellectual property
rights are critical to the continued growth of our economy, and we will
vigorously press our trading partners to follow and enforce the rules to protect
American creativity, innovation and technology. We are encouraged that the
Czech Republic has started
developing legal and enforcement measures to address long-standing concerns over
piracy and counterfeiting, and look forward to continuing to work with the
Czech
Republic to achieve concrete results in IPR
enforcement, both bilaterally and globally."
The Czech Republic was not included
on the Watch List or the Priority Watch List in the 2007 Special 301 Report,
released in April 2007, but USTR announced that it would conduct an Out-of-Cycle
Review to monitor progress in addressing concerns regarding the lack of adequate
protection and enforcement of intellectual property in the Czech Republic,
especially with respect to sales of pirated and counterfeit goods in its
notorious markets.
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