In its annual 'Special 301' review of the state of intellectual property rights (IPR) protection and enforcement in U.S. trading partners around the world, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) kept Lebanon, along with 22 other countries and jurisdictions, on the Watch List for the ineffective and inadequate protection of intellectual property rights and for severe copyright violations. The USTR placed Lebanon on the Watch List in 1999 and then downgraded it to the more critical Priority Watch List in 2001, where it remained until 2007. It then upgraded Lebanon to the Watch List in 2008, where it has remained since then. Lebanon, along with Egypt, Kuwait, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates are the only countries from the Middle East & Africa region that are on the 2020 Watch List. Also, the USTR included 10 countries this year on its Priority Watch List, with Algeria and Saudi Arabia representing the Middle East & Africa on the list.
 
The USTR called on Lebanese authorities to ratify and implement several IPR treaties, including Articles 1 to 12 of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, the Singapore Treaty on the Law of Trademarks, as well as the latest acts of the Nice Agreement Concerning the International Classification of Goods and Services for the Purposes of the Registration of Marks. In addition, it encouraged authorities to implement and ratify the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Copyright Treaty, as well as to join the Patent Cooperation Treaty, the Protocol Relating to the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks, as well as the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty.