XN000022-1996-12-21+22 — Page 4

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"The Hong Kong Government remains determined to do its utmost to put in place the best intellectual property right regime and to enforce the regime robustly. We have always acted, and will continue to act, decisively against IPR infringers within Hong Kong's rule of law. We will continue to work together with copyright owners from the US and other countries and seek active support from them in our efforts to enforce against piracy activities,eg.by testifying in our courts of law," he said.

In this year, the Government has taken additional pro-active measures to combat copyright piracy on the following fronts with good results:

(a)

(b)

closer liaison with IPR enforcement authorities in China to stop pirated copyright products from entering Hong Kong;

vigorous enforcement action at the retail, distribution and importation levels;

(c)

legislative measures to strengthen enforcement capabilities;

(d) introduction of deterrent penalties; and

(e)

closer liaison and cooperation with copyright owners in taking enforcement and prosecution actions.

The spokesman noted that at the retail level, Customs raided 1,045 shops and hawker stalls, arrested 1,028 persons and seized 495,019 CDs, VCDs and CD-ROMs worth HK$26 million in the first ten months of 1996.

Separately, in the first ten months of this year, Customs arrested 117 persons in connection with piracy cases at the importation, storage and distribution levels. A total of 249,324 CDs, VCDs and CD-ROMs with an estimated value of HK$11.8 million were seized. They represent an increase of 148 per cent and 132 per cent of the figures for the whole of 1995.

Under Special 301 provisions, the USTR publishes annually lists of countries/territories which, in the view of the US Administration, offer inadequate IPR protection to US IPR investments in these countries/territories. The lists are ranked in the following descending order in terms of seriousness in IPR violation: "Priority Foreign Country List", "Priority Watch List" and "Watch List". There is also the lowest category "Other Observation" in the Report.