The United States Trade Office maintains a Watch List each year of countries it thinks are problematic when it comes to intellectual property protection. A few entries:

Canada

Pluses: The United States' largest trading partner is making its debut on the U.S. Trade Representative's Watch List this year, making it the only developed Western democracy to be singled out. In its report, the U.S. commended Canada on stated commitments in 2007 and 2008 to improve intellectual property protection and enforcement and touted the cooperation between the two governments on a number of bilateral and multilateral protection initiatives.

Problems: The U.S. is taking Canada to task for not implementing key copyright reforms. Further, the U.S. says Canada's "weak" border measures continue to be a concern.

China

Pluses: The U.S. acknowledges that the Chinese government continues to provide increased attention to intellectual property protection, citing an increasing number of IP cases in Chinese courts and heightened efforts to crack down on violators during the Beijing Olympics.

Problems: The U.S.'s concerns are many when it comes to China. Despite heightened efforts at protection, the share of IP-infringing products seized at the U.S. border that were of Chinese origin were 81 percent last year, an increase of 40 percent over 2007, according to the U.S. Trade Representative's Office, which stated that retail and wholesale trademark counterfeiting in China continues to be a major source of frustration for international brand owners.

India

Pluses: the U.S. says India has made progress on improving its IP protection infrastructure, including the modernization of IP offices, the introduction of an e-filing system for applications and growing political support for the creation of specialized IP police units.

Problems: Despite these steps, IP protection remains weak in India, according to the Trade Representative's Office. Piracy and counterfeiting of pharmaceuticals and other products remain a serious problem in India, although the U.S. said it is encouraged by India's passage of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act of 2008, which increases penalties for adulterated pharmaceuticals. The U.S. wants India to enact legislation to strengthen its copyright laws and implement the WIPO's Internet treaties.

Isreal

Pluses: The Trade Representative's Office noted that Israel has made some positive steps in recent years, including regulations issued in 2007 and again last year on the manufacturing of pharmaceutical products for export, and news that the country's Ministry of Justice has begun work on a bill that strengthens and codifies certain aspects of patent applications.

Problems: The U.S. cited two areas of concern: inadequate protection against unfair commercial use of undisclosed test data generated to obtain market approval for pharmaceutical products; and measures that have a negative effect on the length of patent term extension granted to compensate for delays in obtaining regulatory approval for pharmaceuticals. The Trade Representative's office said these lead to weak protection for innovative pharmaceutical products.

Russia

Pluses: Russia recently acceded to the WIPO's Internet Treaties and has made progress in fighting software piracy. The Moscow city government recently banned DVD/CD kiosks in public transportation systems, eliminating a key conduit in pirated goods.

Problems: Copyright industries in the U.S. estimate a loss in excess of $2.7 billion in 2008 due to Russian copyright infringement, especially through online piracy. The Russian government has closed down a number of illegal Web sites that offer pirated music, but many more have sprung up in their place.

This story originally appeared in the Boston Business Journal, an affiliated publication.