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claim interpretation before the Japanese Patent Office and narrow patent claim interpretation in the courts. The February 1998 decision of the Japanese Supreme Court to permit an infringement finding under the "doctrine of equivalents" represented a positive step toward broadening Japanese courts' generally narrow interpretation of patent claims. Intellectual property rights issues continue to be the focus of U.S.-Japan discussions in a number of multilateral, regional and bilateral fora.
Jordan provides no patent protection for pharmaceutical products and copyright piracy is estimated at 100 percent. Jordanian companies market more than 50 pirated U.S. pharmaceuticals in Jordan and export approximately $35 million of pirated pharmaceutical products to other countries in the region. Jordan's 1992 copyright law falls short of internationally accepted norms. In 1997, the Jordanian Parliament failed to pass proposed amendments which would have addressed some of the law's inadequacies. In April, Jordan presented an Action Plan designed to bring it into conformity with TRIPS within two years. We will conduct an out-of-cycle review in December to examine the progress made on the Action Plan and the prospects for speedy action on the remaining steps.
Korea: The Government of Korea has taken a number of steps to enhance the protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights and to reduce piracy in the past year. These include increasing budget allocations for IPR protection efforts, opening a Patent Court on March 1, 1998, and introducing legislation to extend the term of protection for patents. In addition, revised trademark law and industrial design laws went into effect on March 1, 1998. The United States applauds these steps and will continue to work with the Government of Korea to address other IPR issues, including full retroactive protection for copyrighted works and other aspects of TRIPS compliance, market access restrictions for motion pictures and cable TV programing, and the need for adequate protection of well-known trademarks and trade secrets and patents.
A 1996 Royal Decree enacted Oman's first copyright law, but it has major shortcomings, has not yet been implemented, and, in its current form, does not protect U.S. works. The U.S. has proposed a bilateral copyright agreement to protect U.S. works in Oman. Oman also does not provide patent protection for pharmaceutical products. Because its intellectual property protection remains minimal, while neighbors strengthen their regimes, Oman increasingly appears to be attracting pirates, who reportedly are smuggling significant amounts of pirated product across the border with the U.A.E. The U.S. Government has made clear to Oman as part of its WTO accession process that it must become TRIPS-consistent by the time it becomes a member of the WTO.
Pakistan took the steps necessary in 1997 to implement its patent mailbox obligations under the TRIPS Agreement; however, other problems remain. Intellectual property piracy in Pakistan remains widespread. Piracy of copyrighted textile designs and reprinting of books (especially computer books, business titles and medical texts) without authorization continue to be significant problems. There are reports that virtually all of Pakistan's demand for software is being supplied by pirated products. The Government has taken steps to strengthen enforcement efforts regarding
