ISLAMABAD: The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) released its 2019 Special 301 Report saying “In 2018, Pakistan maintained positive dialogue with the United States on intellectual property (IP) and conducted meaningful public awareness, capacity building, and training programs to promote IP protection and enforcement in Pakistan”.
The report is the result of a review of the state of intellectual property rights protection and enforcement of the United States’ trading partners around the world. In 2016, Pakistan was removed from the “priority watch list” after eight years and since then it has maintained its position. This year, USTR continued to identify Pakistan on the “watch list” acknowledging our efforts in strengthening the intellectual property regime in the country.
The “watch list” is used as a means of monitoring progress in implementing commitments with regard to the protection of intellectual property rights and for providing comparable market access for U.S. intellectual property products while “priority watch list” reflects lack of adequate and effective intellectual property protection or market access. A spot on the priority watch list may lead to sanctions if the U.S. brings cases to the World Trade Organization. India, China and Russia have been listed as priority watch list countries.
The report says a strong and effective IPO will support Pakistan’s reform efforts, and the government should provide sufficient human and financial resources to empower IPO’s efforts. “The United States encourages Pakistan to continue to work bilaterally, including through U.S. Patent and Trademark Office capacity-building programs, Commercial Law Development Program programs, and the U.S.-Pakistan Trade and Investment Framework Agreement, and to make further progress on IP reforms with a particular focus on aligning its IP laws, regulations, and enforcement regime with international standards”, said the report.
