Costa Rica removed from Special 301 Report on Intellectual Property Protection

By IDeas trademarks & patents

Costa Rica is among a number of trading partners that have taken steps to address concerns identified in last year’s Special 301 Report from the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR).

In April the USTR released its 2020 Special 301 Report on the adequacy and effectiveness of trading partners’ protection of intellectual property rights and the findings of its Review of Notorious Markets for Counterfeiting and Piracy, which highlights online and physical markets that reportedly engage in and facilitate substantial trademark counterfeiting and copyright piracy.

The Special 301 Report identifies U.S. trading partners that do not adequately or effectively protect and enforce intellectual property rights or otherwise deny market access to U.S. innovators and creators that rely on protection of their IP rights.

Trading partners that currently present the most significant concerns regarding IP rights are placed on the Priority Watch List or Watch List. While USTR identified 33 countries for the 2020 lists in the Special 301 Report, Costa Rica was removed from the Watch List due to concrete steps taken to address unlicensed software use in the central government and to implement an online recordation system to improve border enforcement.