CLDP in partnership with the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center, USTR, and USPTO hosted a Webinar for Central Asia Regional Expert Level Working Group on Intellectual Property Rights on the Interagency Coordination for the Protection and Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights. The Webinar was a part of a series of virtual and hybrid meetings/workshops that will take place in 2021, culminating in a U.S. based Consultative Visit of the Central Asia Regional Expert Level Working Group on Intellectual Property Rights to take place after COVID-19 travel restrictions are lifted.

The inaugural meeting of the IP Working Group took place in September 2019 bringing together government officials from Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan with advisors from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), and the U.S. Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration (DOC/ITA). The meeting offered a platform for the country-participants to discuss the development of IP regimes that foster innovation and enhance trading opportunities. Specifically, country-participants learned from each other’s recent developments on the issues of accession to and implementation of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Internet Treaties, government action to ensure use of licensed software, and efforts pertaining to improving protection and enforcement of IP rights; as well as discussed IP protection and enforcement in the region, noted in USTR’s Special 301 Report.

The Webinar on January 27 gathered participants from all 5 Central Asian Republics and discussed processes and practices of successful interagency coordination in IP enforcement. A set of recommendations were developed and, once finalized, will be sent for country government adoption (where applicable) and for U.S. – Central Asia Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) and C5+1 Platform adoption. CLDP’s technical assistance to the Central Asia IP Working Group seeks to strengthen and improve intellectual property protections in order to increase foreign direct investment and trade in the region.