LITHUANIA COMPLIES WITH ALL THE INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS PROTECTION
On 25 April, the U.S. administration announced that Lithuania was removed from the Watch List, as it had improved very much its intellectual property rights protection.
The U.S. administration makes an annual review of intellectual property rights protection all over the world and evaluates how the countries meet their international commitments in the area of intellectual property protection.
Pursuant to provisions of the Trade Act of 1974, the U.S. administration, taking into consideration the opinion of the non-governmental organisations and business representatives, also considering its own evidence, annually evaluates the level of intellectual property protection in certain countries. Countries, which have problems with intellectual property protection, can get enrolled into the Watch List, the Priority Watch List, and the Section 306 Monitoring or become a Priority Foreign Country.
Since 2000 Lithuania was enrolled into the Watch List due to the possible breaches of the intellectual property rights on the internet pages, insufficient border control and insufficient cooperation of competent institutions, responsible for intellectual property protection.
Considering the progress achieved by the end of 2007, Lithuania was invited to take part in the Special 301 initiative, which is dedicated to the countries that have achieved the greatest progress in the world. This initiative allows presenting the country’s intellectual property protection system in more detail and conducting direct consultations with the U.S. administration.
In February 2008, the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Culture, the Customs Department under the Ministry of Finance, General Prosecutor’s Office , Information Society Development Committee under the Government of Lithuania and the Lithuanian Criminal Police Bureau drafted a report on the Lithuania‘s progress in the area of intellectual property protection, which determined that the U.S. administration acknowledged Lithuania as progressive and removed it from the Watch List.
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