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Indonesia: Indonesia has not made sufficient progress to address the lack of adequate and effective protection for intellectual property rights and therefore remains on the Special 301 Priority Watch List. Indonesian copyright and patent laws do not provide minimum levels of IPR protection consistent with TRIPS obligations. While we welcome improvements in enforcement over the past year, the Indonesian government has failed to take sufficient actions against the piracy of computer software, video compact discs, books, and infringement of pharmaceutical patents. The United States urges Indonesia to make IPR protection a priority and to demonstrate concrete progress toward addressing this situation in the short term.
Israel: Israel's copyright law is inadequate, enforcement and penalties are ineffective, and optical media piracy is rampant. Pirate sound recordings, video games and computer programs now overwhelm Israel's legitimate domestic markets. Israel has become a distribution hub in a multi-country network for pirated optical media product, much of which is manufactured in Israel. February 1999 amendments to the Pharmacists Law diminish pharmaceutical patent protection by permitting the parallel importation of pharmaceuticals and sanction the unfair commercial use of test data. The United States Government and U.S. research-based pharmaceutical industry actively oppose this change. In June 1998, the United States Government requested that the Government of Israel adopt an Action Plan which includes passage of the new copyright bill and stepped up efforts to combat piracy. The plan includes introduction of effective CD plant controls, including the use of source identification codes; raids and seizures; organization of a special police unit; improved customs activity; and the implementation of tough criminal penalties. Although Israel has agreed to most elements of the Action Plan, it has made little progress towards implementing the plan. We remain extremely concerned about the state of intellectual property protection in Israel, particularly with regard to the lack of enforcement, and will conduct an out-of-cycle review in December to evaluate Israel's progress on enforcement and in meeting its TRIPS obligations which become effective January 1, 2000.
Italy is being retained on the Priority Watch List due to the Government of Italy's continued failure to enact anti-piracy legislation that includes TRIPS-consistent penalties sufficient to provide an effective deterrent to piracy and counterfeiting. Ambassador Barshefsky, and other senior Administration officials, have stressed repeatedly that the U.S. looked to the GOI to pass such legislation prior to this year's annual review. We are especially concerned that Italy has failed to pass this important legislation because Italy has some of the lowest criminal penalties in Europe and one of the highest rates of piracy. Piracy and counterfeiting of American intellectual property in Italy continue to be relatively widespread practices, particularly with regard to piracy of video, sound recordings and computer software. While noting that Italy has increased enforcement actions in the past year, we remain concerned that TRIPS-consistent remedies against end-user software piracy may not be available in Italy.
Kuwait has not yet complied fully with the requirements of the TRIPS Agreement in a number of areas. Kuwait's failure to enact the pending draft copyright law leaves it as the worst pirate market in the Gulf region, and the only WTO country without a copyright law. Copyright enforcement remains a serious problem as authorities have not vigorously enforced the 1995 ministerial decree against copyright violations. Kuwait's patent law is deficient with respect to
