Taiwan set to stay on piracy list

Other recommendations include effective monitoring of exports of counterfeit cartridge-based video games and their components, and an expansion of the new Intellectual Property Court to handle more copyright cases.

The report also recommends that China remain on the US Trade Representative's Priority Watch List for another year.

It estimates that US businesses lost nearly US$2.4 billion due to piracy in China, making it the world's worst offender in piracy of intellectual property.

TAIWAN'S RESPONSE

Jack Lu (盧文祥), deputy director-general of the Ministry of Economic Affairs' Intellectual Property Office, said that his agency was aware of the IIPA's suggestions, and that it would try to negotiate with the group and clear up any doubts it had before an official announcement is made in early May.

Taiwan has made a concerted effort to improve the protection of intellectual property and had high hopes of being removed from the list, office Director-General Tsai Lien-sheng (蔡練生) said last month.

Citing a preliminary estimate, Tsai said that Taiwan's piracy rate had dropped from 43 percent in 2004 to 36 percent last year.

Additional reporting by Jessie Ho