BRUNEI SPECIAL 301 REPLY - MOVE FORWARD TOGETHER ON IP

UNCLAS BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN 000128 SIPDIS SIPDIS SENSITIVE DEPARTMENT FOR EAP/MTS DEPARTMENT PASS USTR FOR WEISEL, BAE AND EHLERS DEPARTMENT PLEASE PASS TO USPTO FOR FOWLER SINGAPORE FOR FCS, DHS AND FAS KUALA LUMPUR FOR FAS BANGKOK FOR FCS:NESS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ECON ETRD KIPR BX SUBJECT: BRUNEI SPECIAL 301 REPLY - MOVE FORWARD TOGETHER ON IP PROTECTION Ref: A) Wallace-Friedman e-mail of 4/25/08 B) State 45407 C) Bandar Seri Begawan 111 and previous ¶1. (SBU) Per ref A instructions, DCM informed Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MoFAT) officials on April 25 of the decision not/not to place Brunei on the Special 301 Watch List. DCM followed up, delivering the full demarche to MoFAT Permanent Secretary for Trade Dato Lim Jock Hoi on April 28. Note: ref B instructions received April 30. ¶2. (SBU) Dato Lim responded that the Government of Brunei (GoB) wants to work together with the U.S. government and intellectual property rights holders to improve IP enforcement in Brunei. He welcomed the proposed USPTO-GIPA co-sponsored enforcement workshop as an important step and repeated the GoB request to have rights holders provide points of contact to MoFAT to facilitate cooperative enforcement efforts (ref C). Lim said he would work with the Customs Department to help secure GoB (Ministry of Finance) co-sponsorship of this workshop on June 3-4, as proposed. ¶3. (SBU) Lim added that he would be working to establish a standing interagency IPR working group to maintain focus on the issue of IPprotection and to follow up on issues of concern rised in our demarche and in our Trade and Investent Council (TICO) meetings including the need fr a review of existing IP legislation. Reiteratin his views on building public support for strongerIP protections (ref B),Dato Lim stated that an pproach that focuses on health and safety concers about pirated goods would have the biggest impct on both the law enforcement comunity and the general public. ¶4. (SBU) Lim also stated that Brunei was considering joining the Convention on Biodiversity on the rationale that Brunei's pristine tropical rainforest jungle could be a source of future IP products from Brunei. Joining the Convention would help ensure protection of the Heart of Borneo areas in Brunei as well as being a step towards building a stronger case for the protection of IP being in Brunei's national interest. SKODON