PRIORITY FOREIGN COUNTRIES
Despite substantial progress by the Administration in negotiating mutually acceptable solutions to our intellectual property problems in many countries around the world, the lack of adequate and effective intellectual property protection has remained particularly acute in some countries. As a result, the Administration has identified the following three countries as priority foreign countries:
| China India Thailand |
All three of these countries have been on the Administration's Special 301 "Priority Watch List" since the first annual review in 1989. In each case, the practices of these countries have been found to be egregious, resulting in an adverse impact on U.S. industry. No significant progress has been made, either bilaterally or multilaterally, to address these practices.
China is our only major trading partner to offer neither product patent protection for pharmaceuticals and other chemicals, nor copyright protection for U.S. works. In addition, trademarks are granted to the first registrant in China, regardless of the original owner. Trade secrets are not adequately protected in China. As a result, piracy of all forms of intellectual property is widespread in China, accounting for significant losses to U.S. industries.
India has been identified as a Priority Foreign Country because it provides an inadequate level of patent protection, including too short a term of protection and overly broad compulsory licensing provisions. As a result of the total lack of protection for certain classes of inventions, particularly pharmaceuticals, many U.S. patented products are widely pirated. Copyrighted materials including books, videos, sound recordings, and computer software, are also pirated. Finally, market access for motion pictures is severely restrained through quotas, fees, and other barriers.
Thailand has been identified as a Priority Foreign Country because of failure to enforce copyrights and deficient patent protection, especially in the area of pharmaceuticals. In the area of copyright, ineffective enforcement has led to significant losses for the U.S. motion picture, sound recording and computer software industries. In the area of patents, lack of patent protection for pharmaceuticals, along with overly broad compulsory licensing provisions and an insufficient term of protection have caused hardship for U.S. companies. Since these
