Colombia is pirated product; the U.S. copyright industry estimates losses across all copyright sectors at $131 million last year. Other areas of copyright piracy are on the rise, including optical disc piracy (both CD-Rs and DVD-Rs), illegal photocopying of academic textbooks, business software piracy, and entertainment software piracy. These high piracy levels plus a lack of successful prosecutions for IPR infringement remain problematic. Efforts to combat piracy through raids and other enforcement measures are hindered by a judicial system that fails to actively prosecute cases or issue deterrent criminal sentences. Border enforcement is weak, administrative enforcement against signal theft piracy needs improvement, and it can take as long as six months to carry out inspections after requesting civil ex parte search orders. The United States urges Colombia to ensure that its criminal, administrative, civil and border enforcement procedures meet its longstanding bilateral and multilateral intellectual property enforcement obligations and are implemented effectively in the near future.
COSTA RICA
In August 2004, Costa Rica signed the United States-Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR). The United States commends Costa Rica's commitment to ensuring that its IPR legislation conforms to the TRIPS Agreement and CAFTA-DR. However, Costa Rica still faces significant IPR enforcement problems that warrant keeping Costa Rica on the Watch List in 2005. We urge the Government of Costa Rica to modify its data protection law to provide the requisite level of protection, as well as amend its patent law to meet international standards and Costa Rica's international and CAFTA-DR obligations. We urge the Government of Costa Rica to not adopt proposed legislation that would weaken the criminal procedure code for IPR enforcement, but recommend that companion legislation which continues strong criminal sanctions be considered instead. We encourage the Government of Costa Rica to take immediate action in 2005 to improve the shortcomings in its IPR enforcement system by assigning priority and resources to enforcement efforts against piracy and counterfeiting. In light of CAFTA-DR, we also urge the Government of Costa Rica to ensure that its local IPR legislation conforms fully to its CAFTA-DR obligations.
CROATIA
Croatia will remain on the Watch List in 2005 due to limited progress on IPR issues. Although Croatia passed an amendment to its drug registration law in December 2004 that provided protection for test and other data from unfair commercial use, Croatia still fails to provide coordination between its national patent authority and its central health regulatory authority to prevent marketing registrations for patent-infringing products. As a result, the U.S. pharmaceutical industry reports that companies are easily able to register patent-infringing pharmaceuticals in Croatia. We will continue to monitor Croatia's progress on this issue in 2005.
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
IPR protection has not improved significantly in the Dominican Republic during the past year, and thus it will remain on the Watch List in 2005. The Dominican Republic signed the U.S.-Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR) with the United States in August 2004 that will require the Dominican Republic to upgrade considerably its IPR protections. Concerns still remain regarding the protection and enforcement of intellectual property, particularly with respect to ongoing broadcast piracy and ineffective prosecution of
