BNS

July 13, 2001

Survey: State Agencies Weak Defenders of Intellectual Property for Baltic Business

Business executives in the Baltic States believe that state institutions are weak defenders of corporate intellectual property rights and that intellectual property protection is not considered a government priority.

Such were the conclusions drawn Friday from the presentation of the Coalition for Intellectual Property Rights (CIPR) Baltic business survey results. A total of 102 business executives from all three Baltic States responded to the CIPR survey.

Survey data reveal that Baltic business executives are convinced their governments do not pay adequate attention to the protection of trademarks, patents and other intellectual property rights. On a five-point scale, Latvia's business leaders rated their government's performance with 2.77 points, while Estonian entrepreneurs gave their government 2.74 points and Lithuanians rated their government at 2.4 points.

Latvian respondents held the strongest opinion that state agency rules and procedures, together with legislation, can help in the fight against intellectual property rights violations. They rated at 3.21 points on a five-point scale state laws and rules in the intellectual property field. On their part, Estonian and Lithuanian survey respondents rated their states' legislative acts with 2.65 and 2.56, respectively.

The survey results also show that Latvian respondents feel the State Patent Office and Ministry of Culture are most inclined to defend their rights, while the Ministries of Interior and Justice, as well as local governments and the courts are making the least effort to protect their intellectual property. The work of the State Patent Office received an average rating of 3.79, the Ministry of Culture 3 points, the Ministry of Interior 2.09 points and the courts 2.56 points.

Estonian respondents also named the Ministry of Culture as the primary observer and protector of their intellectual property rights. However the Estonians also rated their Ministry of Justice, local governments and courts much higher than their Latvian counterparts. The Estonian Ministries of Culture and Justice received average ratings of 4 and 3.5 points, respectively.

On their part Lithuanian survey respondents hold their State Patent Board to be the strongest defender of their rights, while only partly trusting other state institutions with the task. The Lithuanians rated their Patent Board with an average of 3.47 points out of five, but the lowest coefficient of trust went to Lithuania's Ministry of Justice (2.36 points).

CIPR is an organization uniting the business community with representatives of state agencies throughout the world to jointly look after the observance of intellectual property rights in the corporate sector.