RUSSIAN DEPUTIES TO MEET WITH U.S. OFFICIALS IN WASHINGTON ON INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ISSUES

Washington, D.C. - A delegation of Russian State Duma Deputies will visit Washington, D.C. from May 16 to May 23 for high-level discussions with U.S. officials on important intellectual property (IP) issues to put Russia in line with international standards and norms. The visit is being sponsored by The Open World Program of the Center for Russian Leadership Development at the Library of Congress, and the Coalition for Intellectual Property Rights (CIPR).

Russian deputies will meet with U.S. government officials, Members of Congress and NGO leaders interested in IP issues in the Russian Federation. Topics of priority include anti-counterfeiting issues and enforcement measures.

The State Duma Delegation members arriving on the 16th are Petr B. Shelishch, Vyacheslav I. Shport, Yaroslav M. Shvyryaeyv and Aleksandr M. Yashin, all Deputy Chairmen on the Committee of Science, Construction and Technology; and Adrian G. Puzanovskiy, Deputy Chairman for the Committee for Education and Science.

Meetings will take also place with members of the USTR IP Working Group for Russia, members of the Federal Trade Commission - Office of Consumer Protection, US-Russia Business Council, The Library of Congress Copyright Office, The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and other IP Trade Associations. The delegation will participate in other International Trademark Association (INTA) activities from May 19 through May 22 where experts and practitioners will speak on trademark topics and issues to over 5,000 trademark professionals from over 120 countries around the world.

"These Russian leaders are making tremendous strides in the IP reform process in Russia," said Dr. James H. Billington, chairman of the Board of Trustees at the Center for Russian Leadership Development. "We are happy to host this visit with CIPR to provide an excellent opportunity to exchange ideas with American IP officials."

"The trip to Washington, D.C. and series of IP meetings are just further indicators that the RF State Duma is committed to protecting intellectual property rights of Russian and foreign investors," said Peter Necarsulmer, president of CIPR-- a public-private partnership helping to lead the fight against counterfeiting and other IP abuses in Russia. "We hope that the discussions with U.S. officials will advance Russia's IP legislation to bring into compliance with international standards and help to pave Russia's road to WTO."

CIPR studies show that IP abuse cost government and industry in excess of two billion dollars a year. While some officials stressed that IP violations are major economic barriers to trade and investment, MVD, Customs and other enforcement officials emphasized that piracy and counterfeiting "is a threat to the health and safety of Russian consumers and undermine state security, which is why they must be prosecute as major crimes."

Shelishch recently led the groundbreaking proposal for amendments in anti-counterfeiting and IP enforcement. According to Alexander Shelemekh, vice president of CIPR, one important provision is the requirement that confiscated counterfeiting goods be either transferred to the legitimate trademark owner for disposal, or destroyed by the state.

Previously known as the Russian Leadership Program, Open World is designed to foster mutual understanding between the United States and the Russian Federation and to further the process of building democracy and a market economy in Russia. The Center for Democracy is a bipartisan, nonprofit organization that works internationally on issues of democratic governance and the rule of law.

CIPR is a private-public partnership dedicated to advancing intellectual property rights protection and reform in the Baltic states, CIS states and other countries that comprise the former Soviet Union. CIPR has been active in advocating the adoption of a counterfeit definition as an integral part of Russia's Trademark Law, to amend the government proposed provision on appellations of origin, to incorporate provisions for physical destruction of counterfeit goods, and to increase penalties for counterfeiters, including the seizure of assets.

 

 

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