LETA

July 13, 2001

Experts in Intellectual Property Protection Urge Governments to Pay More Attention to Issue

by Jana Saulite

Political leadership is required on the part of the government in order to effectively resolve problems in intellectual property protection, Coalition for Intellectual Property Rights (CIPR) President Peter Necarsulmer said today at a roundtable discussion about intellectual property protection.

Having surveyed business executives in the Baltic states, CIPR has concluded that the only agencies receiving favourable ratings from respondents are the state patent authorities. In Latvia that would be the Republic of Latvia State Patent Office.

CIPR's president also stressed that governments need to allocate the essential budgetary resources to the courts, customs service and police, so that they can fully perform their duties. Currently specialists in this area of law enforcement are lacking technology, equipment, training and knowledge.

Necarsulmer also pointed out that intellectual property owners must also assume responsibility for this situation - they need to cooperate more closely with the relevant state and law enforcement agencies. "Not only do they need to inform the police and customs about the problems which exist, but also to explain how they can help these officials solve them," said the CIPR president.

The intellectual property protection expert also showed that trademark and other intellectual property rights owners are often remiss in defending their own rights. Moreover, business executives are reluctant to admit that counterfeits of their own products can be purchased on the market, because that means consumers may refrain from their purchase entirely out of fear of getting a fake.

The survey results indicate that of 102 Baltic business executives responding, only 51% have registered a trademark in the past 12 months, 22% have received a patent, while only 11% exercised their right to register their products with the Customs Service, which helps expose cases of counterfeit importation.

As reported previously, CIPR hosted the roundtable discussion today for business leaders, civil servants and other interested parties to confer about the importance of intellectual property protection and other issues of concern in the field.

CIPR was created to encourage cooperation between the private sector and state structures in the Baltic and CIS countries.