The Philippines successfully steered clear of the United States Special 301 Watch List of countries with intellectual property violations and concerns for ten consecutive years and was even recognized for its enforcement practices to prevent unauthorized camcording. This was contained in the United States Trade Representative’s (USTR) 2022 Special 301 Report released on Wednesday night, April 26, which details the US findings of more than 100 trading partners after significant research and enhanced engagement with stakeholders. In particular, the USTR urged countries to adopt laws and enforcement practices designed to prevent unauthorized camcording, such as laws that have been adopted in Canada, Japan, the Philippines, and Ukraine. In the area of Geographic Indication (GI) policies, which the EU is aggressively promoting, the US said that it is engaging bilaterally to address concerns resulting from the GI provisions in existing EU trade agreements, agreements under negotiation and other initiatives. The Philippines is among these countries mentioned by the USTR. Meantime, Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) Director General Rowel S. Barba said the country’s performance over the past decade is a “testament that we are a nation that respects IP.” “Our artists, inventors, businesses will be encouraged to create more works & inventions. And investors will be encouraged to invest in the Philippines knowing that their IPs are protected,” he said. Barba attributed the accomplishment to the hard work of all the member agencies of the National Committee of Intellectual Property Rights chaired by the Department of Trade and Industry and co-chaired by IPOPHL. He also cited the whole of government approach in combatting counterfeiting and piracy. The latest report was a result of a review on the adequacy and effectiveness of US trading partners’ protection and enforcement of intellectual property (IP) rights. “Innovation and creativity are at the heart of American competitiveness. That is why the Biden-Harris Administration’s new story on trade includes lifting up the 60 million jobs and workers in our IP-intensive industries through robust IP protection and enforcement in foreign countries,” said Ambassador Katherine Tai. “Our Administration will continue to engage with the trading partners identified in this year’s Report to empower our inventors, creators, and brands, and to demonstrate that trade can deliver tangible results across the American economy.” Key elements of the 2023 Special 301 Report include the addition of Belarus and Bulgaria countries. The Special 301 review continued to be suspended on Ukraine due to Russia’s premeditated and unprovoked further invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. USTR added Belarus to the Watch List, in response to Belarus passing a law that legalized unlicensed use of certain copyrighted works if the right holder is from a foreign state “committing unfriendly actions,” including sanctioning Belarus for their role in Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. Furthermore, Belarus can keep royalties from this unlicensed usage and shift them to Belarus’s general budget, meaning that the Lukashenka regime would directly financially benefit from this unauthorized usage. USTR added Bulgaria to the Watch List because it did not sufficiently address deficiencies in its investigation and prosecution of online piracy cases, such as by allowing criminal investigations, expert examinations, and prosecutions to proceed with just a subset of seized infringing works. USTR will again conduct an Out-of-Cycle Review of Bulgaria in 2023 to assess whether Bulgaria makes material progress in this area. The report further noted that there still remain many serious concerns regarding IP protection and enforcement in China. In 2022, China continued implementation of amendments to the Patent Law, Copyright Law, and Criminal Law, as well as previous issued measures, but the pace of reforms aimed at addressing IP issues slowed. While right holders have welcomed some positive developments, they raise concerns about the adequacy and effective implementation of these measures, as well as about long-standing issues like technology transfer, trade secrets, bad faith trademarks, counterfeiting, online piracy, and geographical indications. Also, the report noted that statements by Chinese officials that tie IP rights to Chinese market dominance still raise strong concerns. The United States continues to monitor closely China’s progress in implementing its commitments under the United States-China Economic and Trade Agreement (Phase One Agreement). Several trading partners continued to advance IP protection and enforcement by enacting major legal reforms. For example, Thailand’s amendments to the Copyright Act entered into force in August 2022. Vietnam’s amendments to the IP Code entered into force in January 2023. Nigeria adopted the Copyright Act, 2022 in March 2023.