USTR Report Says China Fails to Fundamentally Improve IPR Framework.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) released a report Friday (April 30) alleging that China has failed to fully implement its commitment to protect U.S. intellectual property rights in the first phase of the U.S.-China trade agreement signed last year with former President Trump’s administration.
USTR issued its annual “Special 301 Report” on intellectual property rights, stating that China amended its patent, copyright and criminal laws last year and enacted a number of draft regulations governing intellectual property rights, but that these reforms need to be effectively implemented and fail to comprehensively and fundamentally improve China’s intellectual property architecture.
In particular, the report noted that Chinese courts have in recent months imposed large-scale bans on copyright holders from asserting their patent rights outside of China, and expressed concern that Communist Party leaders earlier said they would promote China’s copyright law outside of China.
The “Special 301 Report,” an annual update of U.S. findings on intellectual property and trade practices in various countries, was released Friday and added Argentina, Chile, India, Indonesia, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Ukraine and Venezuela to its priority watch list, in addition to China. The report also said that the new coronary pneumonia epidemic has shifted many commercial activities from physical to online, leading to worsening IPR violations.
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