civil findings against vKontakte, Russia's largest social networking site, for copyright infringement. Russian law enforcement authorities also led several significant actions against pirated optical disc distributors, including the largest known seizure in Russia involving two million optical discs. As part of the 2011 out-of-cycle review of notorious markets, the Savelovskiy Market was removed from the notorious markets list as a result of the Savelovskiy Market's adoption and implementation of an action plan to stop the distribution of infringing goods.
Another important step Russia took was to close down operations of optical disc plants located on Russian state-owned restricted access regime enterprises (RARE) sites that were engaged in the production of pirated media. Russia agreed to take this action in the 2006 Bilateral Agreement on Protection and Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights (2006 Bilateral Agreement on IPR). According to industry reports, however, warehouses storing pirated CDs and DVDs remain on several government-controlled military-industrial sites. This situation leaves Russian enforcement agencies and rights holders with limited opportunities to conduct successful raids against such warehouses.
The United States also recalls Russia's enactment, as part of the WTO accession process, of four important IPR laws in 2010. These achievements complete the legislative commitments Russia made in the 2006 Bilateral Agreement on IPR. Upon its accession to the WTO, Russia must comply with all of the obligations of the WTO TRIPS Agreement, which sets out minimum requirements for protecting and enforcing IPR, including with respect to key rights relied on by the U.S. copyright-based industries, such as the software, motion picture and sound recording industries, as well as industries that rely on patents, trademarks, trade secrets, and test data protection. Regarding test data protection, Russia is obligated to implement the 2010 amendments to the Law on Circulation of Medicines upon its WTO accession. Once Russia becomes a WTO Member, it will be required to comply with the rules governing the enforcement of IPR, covering, inter alia, civil and administrative procedures and remedies, provisional measures (i.e., preliminary injunctions), customs measures to enforce IPRs at the border, and criminal procedures. Furthermore, Russia should implement specific commitments regarding areas of concern, including piracy over the Internet and enforcement generally. Russia's implementation of its WTO obligations, once it is a Member, will be subject to WTO dispute settlement procedures.
The United States urges Russia to take additional steps to improve the protection and enforcement of IPR in Russia, especially with respect to piracy over the Internet and enforcement generally. Regarding piracy over the Internet, the United States advocates both further legal reform and enhanced enforcement efforts. The United States encourages Russia to address the problems of websites hosting infringing material and of services that are intended to promote the infringement of copyright by enacting legislation that includes, among other things, appropriate liability standards and requirements for notice and takedown that provide for the swift removal of infringing content. The United States urges Russia to engage in takedown and enforcement actions against infringing sites, including services affiliated with social networking sites such as vKontakte and odnoklassniki.ru.
The United States also urges Russia to strengthen its overall enforcement efforts, including its criminal enforcement efforts, against counterfeiting, piracy (including unauthorized camcording)
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