USTR : Israel violate intellectual property rights

The "Special 301 Report" priority watch list for 2005, published last week by the office of the US Trade Representative ( USTR ) part of the U.S. International Trade Commission, put Israel back on its priority watch list of countries violating intellectual property rights.
 
The Commission decided to blacklist Israel as one of 14 countries identified as serious infringers when it comes to the protection of intellectual property.
 
In the past year, Israel and the U.S. have been engaged in negotiations in a bid to resolve the matter, but the Americans were not satisfied with measures taken by Israel. 
 
Since the end of 2002, and until 2005, Israel was not on the priority watch list, after promising to enact legislation for protecting intellectual property.
 
The decision comes mostly as a result of Israeli-American disagreements over the protection of pharmaceutical companies' information.
 
The U.S. view is that Israeli authorities allow Israeli drug companies to examine research information from patent-holding foreign pharmaceutical companies.
 
Countries that have been blacklisted by the U.S. are subject to special American supervision in areas such as film, music, and software. By putting Israel on the list the US administration is signaling to US companies and businesses its position regarding the protection of intellectual property in Israel, and the degree of caution that should therefore be taken in doing business with Israel China heads the priority watch list, as the leading violator of intellectual property.
 
Besides Israel and China, the other countries on the watch list are Argentina, Brazil, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Kuwait, Lebanon, Pakistan, the Philippines, Russia, Turkey, and Venezuela.