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SPECIAL 301
PROGRESS ON INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ISSUES
MAY 1994 – APRIL 1995
- Armenia will continue to be a Contracting State of the Patent Cooperation Treaty. (May)
- Bulgaria withdrew the declaration which it made under Article 33(2) of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works. The effect of this withdrawal is that any disputes with Bulgaria under the Berne Convention can now be referred to the International Court of Justice. (May)
- The Indian Parliament adopted comprehensive amendments to the 1957 Copyright Act bringing its copyright regime largely into conformity with the TRIPs agreement. Implementing regulations had not yet been issued as of April 1995, but should occur shortly thereafter. (May)
- Costa Rica enacted amendments to its copyright law to explicitly protect computer software and increase criminal penalty provisions. (May)
- Poland's new Law on copyright and Neighboring Rights entered into effect on May 23. (May)
- The Government of El Salvador announced on June 15 the termination of the twice extended grace period for implementation of the 1993 copyright law. Implementing regulations, however, are still pending in the legislature. (June)
- The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published a "Green Paper" on intellectual property and the National Information Infrastructure. (July)
- Austria became a Member State of the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV). (July)
- Guyana became a member of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), and adhered to the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property and the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works. (July)
- Saudi Arabia acceded to the Universal Copyright Convention (UCC) on July 1, 1994. (July)
