prohibit the devices and services intended to circumvent technological protection measures for copyrighted works.
We are pleased to report that as of May 20, 2002, both Treaties will be in effect, as the required number of ratifications have been deposited in Geneva with WIPO. We continue to work internationally to promote ratification of these Treaties by other trading partners. These Treaties represent the current state of international copyright law and provide the critical foundation needed to enable e-commerce to flourish. These treaties provide necessary tools to combat piracy on the Internet.
The United States is also pleased to learn that Japan has recognized the need to protect temporary copies of works and phonograms. This is an important improvement in Japan's protection of copyright and related rights. Unfortunately, Japan's ability to develop a vibrant e-commerce market in works protected by copyright and related rights is now hampered by the enactment of an Internet service provider liability law which fails to provide the necessary protections to right holders. The U.S. encourages Japan best chance to improve this situation by adopting implementing regulations which, without imposing unfair or unequal burdens, provide the necessary incentives for service providers to work with right holders to remove infringing material expeditiously without discriminating against individual right holders, and to provide right holders the ability to learn the identity of accused online infringers.
Other Initiatives Regarding Internet Piracy
We are seeking to incorporate the highest standards of protection for intellectual property into appropriate bilateral and regional trade agreements that we negotiate. We have already had our first success in this effort by incorporating the standards of the WIPO Internet Treaties as substantive obligations in our FTA with Jordan. The Jordan FTA laid the foundation for pursuing this goal in the free trade agreements we are negotiating with Chile and Singapore as well as the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), and other FTAs yet to be launched. Moreover, our proposals in these negotiations will further update copyright and enforcement obligations to reflect the technological challenges we face today as well as those that may exist at the time negotiations are concluded several years from now.
Implementation of the WTO TRIPS Agreement
One of the most significant achievements of the Uruguay Round was the negotiation of the TRIPS Agreement, which requires all WTO Members to provide certain minimum standards of protection for patents, copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, geographical indications and other forms of intellectual property. The Agreement also requires countries to provide effective enforcement of these rights. The TRIPS Agreement is the first broadly-subscribed multilateral intellectual property agreement that is enforceable between governments, allowing them to resolve disputes through the WTO's dispute
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