United States Trade Representative's Public Comment and Request to Testify Period on U.S. IP Protection Ends

February 18, 2010 marked the end of the United States Trade Representative (USTR)'s deadline to submit public comments, hearing statements and requests to testify at the Special 301 Public Hearing on the effectiveness of U.S. trading partner's protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights (IPR). The original deadline, February 12, 2010, was extended to February 18 due to inclement weather. Foreign governments must request to testify at the public hearing by February 23 and submit written comments and hearing statements by February 26. The Special 301 Public Hearing will be held on March 3, 2010 and additional days from March 4 - 8, as necessary at the United States International Trade Commission, 500 E St. SW, Washington, D.C. 20436.

The USTR called for public comment to assist in the preparation of its annual "Special 301" review of the adequacy and effectiveness of U.S. trading partners' protection and enforcement of IPR.

According to the USTR's website, "The Special 301 process pinpoints key challenges for U.S. intellectual property-based businesses from piracy, counterfeiting, and other forms of IPR theft. To help stem these losses, the Obama Administration has made improvements to Special 301 designed to focus on these threats to America's innovation and creativity - two of our greatest strengths in the global economy." "With more robust, public participation in the review, we can better achieve the goal of identifying and addressing the most serious problems with protection and enforcement of IPRs."

The 2010 Special 301 review process will allegedly include more public participation, such as a public hearing for interested persons to testify about the issues relevant to the review, and a new website for the Special 301 review process including links to current and historical information.

The “Special 301” Report is an annual review of the global state of IPR protection and enforcement, conducted by the USTR pursuant to Special 301 provisions of the Trade Act of 1974 (Trade Act). The Special 301 Report process was created in 1989 as a requirement of the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988. In 2009 the USTR and IPR team reviewed 77 trading partners for the Special 301 Report. The USTR placed 46 trading partners on the "Priority Watch List," the "Watch List," or on "Section 306 monitoring."

More information on the 2010 Special 301 review process can be found here.

The USTR's website can be found here. The USTR's blog can be found here.