DOMINICAN REPUBLIC - 2007 SPECIAL 301 REVIEW INPUT

UNCLAS SANTO DOMINGO 000419 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE FOR EB/TPP/IPE - J. BOGER STATE PASS USTR - J. CHOE-GROVES E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ETRD ECON KIPR DR SUBJECT: DOMINICAN REPUBLIC - 2007 SPECIAL 301 REVIEW INPUT REF: STATE 7944 ¶1. (SBU) The Dominican government made a series of modifications to its intellectual property laws in 2006 to implement the country,s obligations under CAFTA-DR. Entry into force of the free trade agreement is expected to occur in early 2007 and will create additional pressure on the government to honor its commitments under the agreement. With the new legislation, the Patent Office is obligated to work more closely with the Ministry of Health relative to issuance of pharmaceutical patents and sanitation permits for the production of new pharmaceutical products and agricultural chemicals. There has been improved coordination to stop television broadcast piracy among various government agencies within the Dominican government, though broadcast piracy remains a problem. While pirated music, video and software are still readily available in the Dominican market, the Dominican copyright office reports having confiscated approximately the same amount of pirated material in 2006 as it did during the previous year. Embassy recommends maintaining the Dominican Republic on the Watch List. Optical Media Piracy -------------- ¶2. (SBU) The Dominican copyright office carries out raids on audiovisual reproduction facilities, and reported having seized 444,550 copies of DVDs and CDs in 2006, similar to the 440,000 reported in 2005. The copyright office reported that it carried out two countrywide operations working with the national police in 2006 during which 57 street vendors of pirated materials were arrested. In all, the copyright office reported that it performed 31 raids in 2006 and that it orchestrated a public destruction of confiscated materials in July and another in January of 2007. The Attorney General,s office reports having processed in conjunction with the national police 84 cases of unlawful copying of audiovisual materials. CAFTA-DR Implementation -------------- ¶3. (U) To implement CAFTA-DR requirements, the Dominican government passed legislation in November 2006 to strengthen its IPR protection regime by, for example, requiring authorities to seize, forfeit, and destroy counterfeit and pirated goods and the equipment used to produce them. It also passed extensive reforms to the industrial property law �A;of 2000, which, if enforced, will make it more difficult for the copy industries of pharmaceuticals and agricultural chemicals to thrive. CAFTA-DR mandates both statutory and actual damages for copyright and trademark infringement, measures that help ensure that monetary damages can be awarded event when it is difficult to assign a monetary value to the infringement. Data Protection -------------- ¶4. (SBU) The CAFTA-DR requires that test data submitted to the Dominican government for the purpose of product approval be protected against unfair commercial use for a period of five years for pharmaceuticals and ten years for agricultural chemicals. Data protection discussions in 2006 during implementation talks between the Dominican government and USTR were protracted and difficult. The local copy industry lobbied the Dominican government not to make the required legislative changes and for several months the government was unwilling to recognize its obligation to protect undisclosed data. Faced, however, with the understanding that the country would be unable to proceed with entry into force of CAFTA-DR, the Dominican government finally passed legislation to enforce data protection in November 2006. Television Broadcast Piracy -------------- ¶5. (U) The Dominican government agreed in a side letter to CAFTA-DR to improve its efforts to stop television broadcast piracy. For the past two years the government has prepared reports on steps being taken to combat broadcast piracy and has generally submitted these quarterly to the Embassy and to USTR. Telecommunications authority INDOTEL reported that in July 2006 it carried out inspections of two cable companies in the towns of Villa Isabella and Altamira in the northern part of the country. These actions resulted in closure of the facilities and provisional seizure of broadcasting equipment for violation of the telecommunications law. Enforcement -------------- ¶6. (SBU) An Attorney General's office representative recently lamented that the National Police has very limited experience and ability in the area of IP enforcement. The Attorney General's office itself has made an effort to increase IP issue awareness and skills among prosecutors (see item on training, below). A prosecutor from a provincial town told an Embassy officer recently that his office emphasizes IP enforcement and that he has participated in closing down pharmacies carrying violating products. He said, however, that he operates with extremely limited resources--he has no computer or cell phone--and that he sometimes fears for his safety because of lack of support from the police. Treaties -------------- ¶7. (U) The WIPO Copyright Treaty and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty entered into force for the Dominican Republic on January 10, 2006. Training -------------- ¶8. (U) In 2006 the Embassy sent prosecutors, judges, customs and patent office officials to USPTO IPR enforcement training in the United States. In February 2007, USPTO organized a program with the office of the Dominican Attorney General to provide IP enforcement training for 40 judges and prosecutors in Santo Domingo. The Embassy is working with the U.S. Department of Justice to host a working session with Dominican IP enforcement officials to create a procedures manual that will be distributed throughout the government. The manual will explain how to carry out and prosecute IP violations. HERTELL