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the context of its WTO accession, and has scheduled an out-of-cycle review later this year to reassess Panama's continuing efforts.
Peru: Peru's patent law excludes the following areas of innovation from protection: inventions involving elements of nature; process inventions involving existing products; products on the World Health Organization (WHO) Model List of Essential Drugs; and inventions involving computer programs. The United States is also concerned by Peru's imposition of a domestic working requirement in its patent regime, which is satisfied by working in other Andean countries but not by working in other WTO Members. The United States strongly urges Peru to address these issues and to bring its system into conformity with the obligations of the TRIPS Agreement.
Philippines: In 1993, USTR moved the Philippines from priority watch list to the watch list after the Philippines entered into a bilateral agreement to take steps to address U.S. intellectual property concerns. A major part of this commitment is that the Philippine Government will enact modern intellectual property laws. Both chambers of the Philippine Congress have recently approved such legislation. However, certain significant differences exist between the House and Senate versions which now must be reconciled. Some of these provisions are of great concern to the United States, including the treatment of computer software. We also encourage the Philippines to conduct additional enforcement actions and to publicize these actions in order to deter IPR infringement.
Poland: The United States continues to monitor implementation and enforcement of rights provided under the copyright law enacted in February 1994. While enforcement has steadily improved for most intellectual property, piracy remains a problem and enforcement efforts must be sustained. Furthermore, Poland's copyright law provides protection to sound recordings both Polish and foreign back only to 1974; the international standard provided for in TRIPS is 50 years of protection for pre-existing works. The United States notes that the TRIPS Agreement obligates Poland to provide full protection for sound recordings on a national treatment basis. The United States will monitor carefully to ensure that such protection is provided.
San Marino: has become an important center for the manufacture and distribution of bootleg sound recordings (unauthorized fixations of live musical performances). The United States Government looks to San Marino to strengthen its domestic legislation and to take strong enforcement actions against those engaging in these illicit practices.
Saudi Arabia has made progress in improving its enforcement activities against copyright piracy, particularly for motion pictures and sound recordings. However, serious copyright problems remain particularly regarding computer software piracy, including end-user piracy. Saudi Arabia's copyright law contains deficiencies making it incompatible with international standards, including an inadequate term of protection. The United States is concerned about the slow pace of implementation and enforcement of IPR legislation. It is important that existing efforts be maintained and that further improvements occur, particularly in terms of software enforcement. At the conclusion of an out-of-cycle review last December Saudi Arabia was maintained on the watch list because more enforcement actions were needed against pirated products. We urge the Saudi Government to conduct additional enforcement actions and to publicize these actions in order to deter piracy.
