KEI Comments filed in 2017 USTR Special 301 Review

Posted on by Claire Cassedy

On February 9, 2017, KEI filed written comments to the Office of the United States Trade Representative’s Special 301 Review process.

The Special 301 Review is an annual process carried out by the USTR to, “to identify countries that deny adequate and effective protection of intellectual property rights (IPR) or deny fair and equitable market access to U.S. persons who rely on intellectual property protection.”

This year’s Special 301 Review in particular presents an opportunity for the new administration to reassess USTR policies and approaches going forward.

KEI also filed notice of intent to testify at the Special 301 Review Hearing. The hearing will take place on Wednesday, March 8th, 2017.

Historical information on Special 301 process, including copies of all USTR Special 301 reports to Congress, which began in 1989, here: https://keionline.org/ustr/special301

The table of contents from the KEI comments are as follows:

Introduction
The USPTO Studies on IP and Employment

  • The Role of Trademarks in Providing Misleading Data on IP-Intensive Industry Employment
  • Figure 1: USTPO/ESA estimate of employment in IP-Intensive industries, 2014
  • Table 1: Employment in Top 10 IP-Intensive Industries, ranked by number of jobs
  • Copyright-Intensive Industries
  • Table 2: Employment in Copyright Intensive Industries
  • Table 3: Components of NAICS Code 5419, Other Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services
  • Table 4: Components of NAICS Code 5111, Newspaper, periodical, book, and directory publishers
  • Motion Picture and Sound Recording Industries
  • Software publishers
  • Open Source Software
  • Foreign Ownership in Copyright Industries
  • The U.S. information technology sector is important
  • Table 5: Selected U.S. technology firms
  • Patent-Intensive Industries
  • Pharmaceuticals and Medicine

Copyright Term
Attacks on Copyright Exceptions
Hague Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters
Patent Trolls Target US Businesses
Patents in China and the United States

  • Table 6: China, patent applications (Source: WIPO)
  • Table 7: China, patent grants (Source: WIPO)
  • FIgure 2: China, Patent Applications
  • Figure 3: China, Patent Grants
  • Table 8: U.S., Patent Applications (Source: WIPO)
  • Table 9: U.S. Patent Grants (Source: WIPO)
  • Figure 4: U.S., Patent Applications
  • Figure 5: U.S., Patent Grants

The United States’ Aging Population, the Price of Medicines, and Healthcare Costs
Trade Policies Concerning Pharmaceuticals and Medicine
Delinkage of R&D Costs from Product Price
Parallel Trade
Transparency
Open Access and Other Public Goods
Concluding Comments