According to the 2014 Special 301 Report: “Ecuador’s Institute for Intellectual Property (IEPI) has undertaken public awareness efforts to attempt to address the rampant IP theft occurring in Ecuador, including at La Bahia, a 2013 Notorious Market”. However there still are disturbing points in the IPR enforcement in Ecuador, including de-criminalization of IPR infringement, high levels of piracy and counterfeiting, fees for patent and plant variety registration and maintenance, the deficiency of protection against unfair commercial use, as well as unauthorized disclosure, of undisclosed test or other data generated to obtain marketing approval for pharmaceutical and agricultural chemical products.
The entire report can be found here.
