COLOMBIA
Colombia remains on the Watch List in 2017 with an Out-of-Cycle Review focused on certain provisions of the United States-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement and monitoring the implementation of Colombia’s National Development Plan. In 2016, Colombia took steps toward completing implementation of certain provisions of the United States-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement (CTPA), including by completing the public comment process for copyright law amendments and completing accession to the Budapest Treaty on the International Recognition of the Deposit of Micro-organisms for the Purposes of Patent Procedure. Colombia still needs to make other improvements with respect to implementation of significant IP-related commitments made under the CTPA, including commitments to address the challenges of online piracy and accession to UPOV 91. The United States urges Colombia to move quickly to introduce into the legislature and enact the copyright law amendments, and urges Colombia to begin working on necessary provisions regarding Internet service providers (ISPs). The United States also urges Colombia to increase its IP enforcement efforts. As online piracy, particularly via mobile devices, continues to grow, Colombian law enforcement authorities with relevant jurisdiction, including the National Police and the Attorney General, have yet to conduct meaningful and sustained investigations and prosecutions against the operators of significant large pirate websites and mobile applications based in Colombia. Colombia has also not been able to reduce significantly the large number of pirated and counterfeit hard goods crossing the border or being sold at Bogota’s San Andresitos markets, on the street, and at other distribution hubs around the country. A number of bus companies are also reportedly playing copyrighted works without a license. The United States recommends that Colombia increase efforts to address online and mobile piracy, and to focus on disrupting organized trafficking in illicit goods, including at the border and in free trade zone areas. Finally, while certain provisions of the National Development Plan (NDP) may be helpful, such as a requirement to develop an IP enforcement policy to help guide, coordinate, and raise awareness of IP enforcement, concerns remain regarding other provisions that could, in implementation, undermine innovation and IP systems (e.g., establishing a role for the health ministry in the examination of pharmaceutical patent applications, or conditioning pharmaceutical regulatory approvals on factors other than safety or efficacy). The United States urges Colombia to take necessary steps to clarify such provisions and implement them in such a way as to ensure that they do not undermine innovation and IP systems.
