JAMAICA
Jamaica remains on the Watch List in 2005. Jamaica's trademark and copyright laws are generally in line with international standards, although we remain concerned over continued problems with Jamaica's delay in enacting the Patents and Designs Act to meet its obligations under the TRIPS Agreement and the U.S.-Jamaica bilateral IP Agreement. We urge the Government of Jamaica to reform its patent law as soon as possible to comply fully with international standards for patent protection.
KAZAKHSTAN
Kazakhstan remains on the Watch List in 2005 so we can monitor further progress on IPR protection and enforcement. Although Kazakhstan has fulfilled a number of its IPR obligations under the 1992 U.S.-Kazakhstan Trade Agreement, some additional steps are required. In particular, Kazakhstan needs to toughen penalties and further empower law enforcement officers to pursue IPR cases. Kazakhstan ratified the WIPO Internet Treaties in 2004 and amended its Copyright Law to provide protection for pre-existing works and sound recordings. In October 2004, the Kazakh Government submitted to Parliament amendments to the Criminal Code that would lower the monetary threshold for commencement of a criminal IPR prosecution and would provide law enforcement agencies with ex officio authority to seize suspected infringing material. Kazakhstan's Civil Procedure Law still does not appear, however, to provide for civil ex parte search procedures needed to provide enforcement against end-user software pirates. In addition, there are few convictions, and those who are convicted receive only minimal penalties. As a result, piracy is still a major problem. We urge the Government of Kazakhstan to continue strengthening its IPR provisions and creating a tighter enforcement regime.
KOREA
Over the past year, Korea has taken significant steps to strengthen its intellectual property regime. We are lowering Korea from the Priority Watch List in 2004 to the Watch List this year to recognize Korea's efforts. Meaningful improvements made by Korea include: introducing legislation that will create protection for sound recordings transmitted over the Internet (using both peer-to-peer and web casting services); implementing regulations that restore the ability of the Korea Media Rating Board to take necessary steps to stop film piracy; and increasing enforcement activities by the Standing Inspection Team against institutions using illegal software. Notwithstanding these improvements, more needs to be done to further update Korea's intellectual property regime to keep pace with the digitization of Korea's economy, and to prevent the proliferation of unauthorized copying of copyrighted material. In particular, we look to Korea to join other economically advanced countries by extending the exclusive reproduction right to cover temporary copies, such as those made in the temporary memory of a computer -- an enormous and still growing manner of using copyrighted works. In addition, we call on Korea to further strengthen the relevant provisions of its Copyright Act and Computer Programs Protection Act related to technological protection measures and ISP liability, to clarify the scope of the private copy exception, and to join the global trend to extend the term of copyright protection for works and sound recordings. The United States has urged Korea to continue accelerating efforts to combat piracy of DVDs, computer software, and university textbooks, as well as to decrease street vendor sales of pirated and counterfeit goods. The United States also has emphasized the importance of Korea continuing to fulfill its WTO TRIPS obligations in the
