On April 12, 2016, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) released its 2016 Special 301 Report (Report). The Report is an annual review of the state of intellectual property rights (IPR) protection and enforcement in U.S. trading partners around the world and is conducted by the Office pursuant to Section 182 of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended by the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988, The Uruguay Round Agreements Act, and the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 (19 U.S.C. §2242).

The Report identifies a number of wide ranging concerns, including: (1) the deterioration in IPR protection and enforcement in several trading partners; (2) reported inadequacies in trade secret protection in China, India, and elsewhere; (3) troubling “indigenous innovation” policies that may unfairly disadvantage U.S. right holders in markets abroad; (4) the continuing challenges of online copyright piracy; (5) measures that impede market access for U.S. products embodying IPR and U.S. entities that rely upon IPR protection; and (6) other ongoing systemic IPR enforcement issues in many trading partners around the world.

During the 2016 Special 301 process, seventy-three (73) trading partners were reviewed. Following extensive research and analysis, eleven (11) countries were placed on the priority watch list and twenty-three (23) on the watch list. The countries on the priority watch list and watch list are as follows: