2. Property Cases on intellectual rights

US Copyright Act:
On 15 June 2000, a WTO Panel condemned Section 110 of the US Copyright Act containing an exemption to the exclusive rights of authors when their music is played in bars, restaurants or shops via a radio or TV. In order to facilitate the solution of this dispute, the EC agreed to a procedural agreement with the US that (a) negotiations on the compensation to EU right holders be held and (b) a WTO arbitration procedure would determine the economic losses due to the WTO incompatible US Copyright Act. The arbitrators rendered their award on 12 October 2001 and determined that the level of nullification or impairment was equal to 1.219.900 €/year.

Omnibus Appropriations Act:
In June 2000, the EC requested the establishment of a WTO Panel which is designed to diminish the rights under the WTO TRIPs Agreement of owners of US trademarks which are identical or similar to trademarks which previously belonged to a Cuban national company which was expropriated in the course of the Cuban revolution.

The 1930 Tariff Act:
US International Trade Commission (ITC) may declare the importation into the US of articles infringing US intellectual property rights illegal. In a number of ways, foreign receive less favourable treatment than US respondents in comparable cases thus violating the national treatment principle of the GATT and certain procedural requirements contained in the TRIPs Agreement. In 1989, Section 337 was already condemned by a GATT Panel, but despite certain amendments by the US in 1994 the US appears not to have brought the statute into conformity with the GATT Panel's findings. The EC requested WTO consultations, which took place in February 2000. Since then, the ITC has started new investigations against a number of European companies. The Commission is concerned by these developments and it regularly raises the ‘Section 337’ issue in its bilateral contacts with the US Administration. The Commission does not discard possible further action at the WTO level.