Special 301: TRIPS Plus – Alive and Kicking, 5 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 651 (2006)

Despite significant strides and multilateral agreements, including requirements for enforcing intellectual property, trademark counterfeiting and copyright piracy remain a persistent problem for intellectual property owners as reflected in the 2006 Special 301 Report issued by the Office of the United States Trade Representative on April 28, 2006. Border measures are a key tool in the United States fight against counterfeiting and piracy at U.S. borders in the global economy where goods are manufactured in different countries and sold worldwide. How does the United States prevent infringing works from crossing its borders and assist its trading partners in creating border enforcement systems, which comply with the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) and provide the most effective protection? The answer is TRIPS-plus border measures, which have been adopted by U.S. Customs and Border Protection and advocated by the U.S. Government in bilateral negotiations with its trading partners through the Special 301 process