Indonesia: While Indonesia's legal and enforcement regime for the protection of intellectual property remains seriously deficient in a number of areas, the Government of Indonesia has taken a number of steps this past year to address these deficiencies. Draft legislation in the areas of trade secrets, industrial design and integrated circuits, as well as amendments to existing patent, trademark and copyright laws, was prepared to meet the January 1, 2000 deadline for compliance with the TRIPS Agreement. While the Indonesian Parliament did not act on these proposals prior to that deadline, the legislation was resubmitted to Parliament in February 2000. Police raids were stepped up, but optical media piracy remains rampant and effective enforcement continues to be hindered by corruption and a non-transparent legal and judicial system. We urge the Government of Indonesia to intensify its efforts to pass TRIPS-consistent legislation as quickly as possible, and look forward to working with the Government of Indonesia immediately thereafter on an action plan to address our remaining concerns.
Ireland: It has been over five years since the WTO TRIPS Agreement came into force and the Government of Ireland has yet to implement a fully TRIPS-consistent copyright law. Three years ago, the United States initiated dispute settlement proceedings to address our concern over this situation. After numerous consultations with the United States, Ireland committed to enact comprehensive copyright reform legislation by December 1, 1998, and agreed to pass a separate bill, on an expedited basis, to address two particularly pressing enforcement issues. Consistent with this agreement, Ireland enacted legislation in June 1998 raising criminal penalties for copyright infringement and addressing other enforcement issues. However, Ireland's commitment to enact comprehensive copyright legislation has not been met. We understand recent progress has been made toward finalizing this legislation and expect it will be enacted by parliament before its summer recess. The U.S. Government remains hopeful that Ireland will take the steps necessary to complete the legislative process in the very near future, but will feel compelled to consider other options in the face of any further delay.
Jamaica: In April 1999, the Government of Jamaica enacted new legislation on copyrights, layout-designs and trademarks. In recent months, Jamaica also has signed both the Paris Convention and the Brussels Convention. However, Jamaica's intellectual property regime does not yet meet TRIPS standards. Specifically, Jamaica lacks patent, industrial design, geographical indication and plant variety legislation consistent with its obligations under the TRIPS Agreement. We urge the Jamaican Government to complete this legislative process, and to continue efforts to improve its enforcement regime, including with respect to misuse of well-known marks.
Kazakhstan: Kazakhstan has several remaining steps to take to fulfill its Intellectual property commitments under the 1992 U.S.-Kazakhstan Trade Agreement and to make its intellectual property regime consistent with the TRIPS Agreement. Specifically, Kazakhstan is not yet a member of the Geneva Phonograms Convention, does not provide any protection or rights to U.S. and other foreign sound recordings, and does not clearly provide retroactive protection for works or sound recordings under its copyright law. There is weak enforcement of intellectual property rights in Kazakhstan and widespread piracy of all copyrighted products. New criminal
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