US embassy cable - 05TELAVIV1246

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 TEL AVIV 001246 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR EB/IPE SWILSON AND NEA/IPA GLOGERFO 
DEPT PLEASE PASS TO USTR JCHOE-GROVES AND ESAUMS 
PLEASE PASS TO DOC JBOGER 
DEPT PLEASE PASS TO USPTO JURDAB, 
DEPT PLEASE PASS TO LOC STEPP 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECON, ETRD, KIPR, IS, ECONOMY AND FINANCE, LABOR AND COMMERCE, U.S.-ISRAEL RELATIONS 
SUBJECT: POST'S SUBMISSION SPECIAL 301 REVIEW: ISRAEL 
 
REF: TEL AVIV 00426 STATE 024592 
 
Sensitive but Unclassified, Please protect accordingly 
 
1. (SBU)  Summary.  The attached evaluation of protection of 
Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) in Israel focuses on areas 
of specific concern as detailed in reftel B.  Post's policy 
recommendation is being transmitted septel.  End Summary. 
 
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Optical Media Piracy 
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2. (SBU)  Cooperation between the IPR police units, customs, 
and industry have stemmed the growth of large-scale piracy 
operations.  However, the IPR police unit is still not fully 
staffed.  In addition, there are no controls on the sale of 
optical media manufacturing capacity equipment in Israel. 
 
3. (SBU)  A draft law on digital media was introduced by the 
MoJ in October 2004. The "Private Copying Bill" threatens to 
undermine the ability of U.S. rights' holders to collect 
royalties on their content when the content is downloaded 
from the internet.  The law calls for a small tax to be 
placed on digital media (CDs, MP3s, etc.) that would then be 
used to provide remuneration for rights' holders.  The law in 
essence threatens to legalize downloaded music, software, and 
games that are for "private use" without allowing for 
adequate compensation.  (Note: The amount of the proposed tax 
of the digital media is still a matter of debate, but is 
likely to be less than 25 cents per unit. End note.) 
 
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Use/Procurement of Government Software 
-------------------------------------- 
 
4. (SBU) The GOI has not announced an IT neutrality policy 
for procurement of software.  In general, the GOI procurement 
of software complies with either licensing, or purchasing 
official copies of products from respective distributors. 
 
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TRIPS COMPATIBILITY 
------------------- 
 
5. (SBU)  Israel has proposed in a rider bill to the Economic 
Arrangements Law (EAL) a provision that would severely limit 
the ability to extend the patent for a chemical entity that 
took years of research to develop. (Note: The EAL is an 
Omnibus Act that includes changes to laws that govern 
economic activity and is voted on along with the annual 
budget. End note.)  As currently drafted, the law requires 
that a request for an extension of patent first be filed in 
another permitting state, and the patent office in Israel is 
not able to grant the extension until it is granted in the 
permitting state.  The law also stipulates that the 
application must be filed in Israel without exception within 
60 days of filing in the permitting state.  Finally, the 
period of extension granted will be equal to the shortest 
term in any permitting state.  In effect, this means that 
most applications for patent term extensions will allow for 
only short periods of coverage.  This decrease in 
extendibility of patents, in combination with the 
time-consuming system of pre-grant opposition to patents, 
will provide diminished IPR coverage for chemical inventions. 
 
6. (U)  To date no laws have been proposed that would 
regulate geographical indications, use of traditional 
knowledge, or expressions of folklore. 
 
7. (SBU) Israel has emerging laws related to genetic 
resources and access, and benefit-sharing.  The majority of 
laws governing access to genetic resources date from the 
Plant Protection Law of 1966.  To date, Israel has not given 
high priority to implementation of the Biodiversity 
Convention.  Israel plans to sign the Cartagena Protocol on 
Biosafety.  The rights and benefits of contracting parties 
who contribute genetic resources are generally expressed 
within the contractual agreements signed by the various 
parties. (Note: For more complete information see Reftel. End 
Note.) 
 
8. (SBU)  Ethical drug companies currently receive no 
protection for clinical test data required by the GOI for 
approval of new drugs (data exclusivity).  An interagency GOI 
panel comprised of the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of 
Health, Ministry of Finance, and Ministry of Industry and 
Trade recommended in April 2004 that Israel adopt a program 
of data exclusivity.  However, their recommendation for a 
data exclusivity regime falls short of real OECD-level 
protection for clinical test data.  The law allows for export 
of generic drugs during the period of exclusivity, ties the 
beginning of the period of exclusivity to registration in a 
3rd country (despite the onerous process and paperwork that 
it takes to register a new drug in Israel), and allows 
generic companies to rely on the files during the period of 
protection for the purpose of preparing to launch generic 
products as soon as patent protection expires.  In addition, 
no coverage is provided for new uses or new indications. 
 
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Enforcement 
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9. (SBU)  The MoJ does not compile annual statistics on 
prosecutions related to IPR.  However, the MoJ has offered to 
compile a submission of relevant information and submit the 
information to USTR no later than March 4. 
 
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Treaties 
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10. (U)  Israel has taken no action on ratification of the 
1996 WIPO Copyright Treaty or WIPO Performance and Phonograms 
Treaty. 
 
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