In April 2007, the United States initiated dispute settlement procedures relating to deficiencies in China's legal regime for protecting and enforcing copyrights and trademarks on a wide range of products. In March 2009, the WTO Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) adopted a panel report that upheld two of the claims advanced by the United States, finding that: (1) China's denial of copyright protection to works that do not meet China's content review standards is impermissible under the TRIPS Agreement; and (2) China's customs rules cannot allow seized counterfeit goods to be publicly auctioned after only removing the spurious trademark. With respect to a third claim concerning China's thresholds for criminal prosecution and conviction of counterfeiting and piracy, while the United States prevailed on the interpretation of the important legal standards in Article 61 of the TRIPS Agreement, including the finding that criminal enforcement measures must reflect and respond to the realities of the commercial marketplace, the panel found that it needed additional evidence before it could uphold the overall U.S. claim that China's criminal thresholds are too high. On March 19, 2010, China announced that it had completed all the necessary domestic legislative procedures to implement the DSB recommendations and rulings. The United States continues to monitor China's implementation of the DSB recommendations and rulings in this dispute.
In addition, the United States requested WTO dispute settlement consultations with China concerning certain other Chinese measures affecting market access and distribution for imported publications, movies, and music, and audio-visual home entertainment products (e.g., DVDs and Blu-ray discs) (AVHE products). The U.S. claims challenged China's prohibition on foreign companies' importation of all products at issue; China's prohibitions and discriminatory requirements imposed on foreign distributors of publications, music, and AVHE products within China; and China's imposition of more burdensome requirements on the distribution of imported publications, movies, and music vis-à-vis their domestic counterparts. On January 19, 2010, the DSB adopted panel and Appellate Body reports that found in favor of the United States on the vast majority of its claims. China committed to bring all relevant measures into compliance with the DSB recommendations by March 19, 2011, and subsequently revised or revoked measures relating to publications, AVHE products, and music. China did not issue any measures relating to theatrical films, but instead proposed bilateral discussions. In February 2012, the United States and China reached an agreement on the terms of an MOU that provides significantly increased market access for imported films and significantly improved compensation for foreign film producers. The United States continues to review and monitor the steps that China has taken toward compliance in this matter.
Following the 1999 Special 301 review process, the United States initiated dispute settlement consultations concerning the EU regulation on food-related GIs, which appeared to discriminate against foreign products and persons, notably by requiring that EU trading partners adopt an "EU-style" system of GI protection, and appeared to provide insufficient protections to trademark owners. On April 20, 2005, the DSB adopted a panel report finding in favor of the
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