Commercial-scale copyright piracy and trademark counterfeiting are growing, whether they emanate from illegal online entities or physical locations within particular nations.
They result in significant financial losses for legitimate U.S. businesses and rights holders. IP theft, including patent infringement, undermines critical U.S. comparative advantages in innovation and creativity to the detriment of American workers and pose significant risks to consumer health and safety.
The Notorious Markets List (NML) provides graphic examples of online and physical markets that engage in or facilitate substantial piracy or counterfeiting. A goal of the NML is to motivate appropriate action by the private sector and governments to reduce piracy and counterfeiting.
The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) 
highlights the following markets because they exemplify global counterfeiting and piracy concerns and because the scale of infringing activity in these markets can cause significant harm to U.S. intellectual property (IP) owners, consumers, legitimate online platforms, and the economy.
Some of the identified markets reportedly host a combination of legitimate and unauthorized activities. Others openly exist solely to engage in or facilitate unauthorized activity.
Online markets include:
1337x, 1FICHIER, AMAZON’S FOREIGN DOMAINS, BESTBUYIPTV, BUKALAPAK, CAROUSELL, CHOMIKUJ, CIMACLUB, DHGATE, DYTT8, FLOKINET, FLVTO, FMOVIES, HOSTING CONCEPTS B.V. (D/B/A OPEN PROVIDER) AND REGIONAL NETWORK INFORMATION CENTER JSC, MP3JUICES, MPGH, NEWALBUM RELEASES, PROPELLER ADS
21 Physical markets identified:
Argentina, Brazil, Cambodia, China, Ecuador, India, Indonesia, KYRGYZ Republic, Malasia, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Phillipines, Russia, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab, Emirates and Vietnam.
China Tops the List
China is at the top of the USTR Report’s Priority Watch list, because of U.S. concerns with China’s “system of pressuring and coercing technology transfer, and the continued need for fundamental structural changes to strengthen IP protection and enforcement, including as to trade secret theft, obstacles to protecting trademarks, online piracy and counterfeiting, the high-volume manufacturing and export of counterfeit goods, and impediments to pharmaceutical innovation.”IP
Go here for a copy of ‘2019 Review of Notorious Markets for Counterfeiting and Piracy’
Image source: ustr.gov; forbes.com
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