This year Special 301 Report brings good news: Costa Rica was removed from the Watch List after 25 years due to concrete steps took to improve the Intellectual Property environment within the country.

In addition to addressing long-standing concerns regarding online piracy and issuing a decree requiring any geographical indication issued to include the identification of generic terms in compound names, its Copyright Registry launched an online platform to determine the level of unlicensed software use in the central government. The Directorate General of Customs created an online recordation system to improve border enforcement.

The Special 301 Report issued by the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) is an annual review of the state of IP protection and enforcement in U.S. trading partners around the world. It is used by companies to understand the IP protection status better to make investment decisions.