LETA

July 13, 2001

Baltic Executives Rate Justice Ministry and Prosecutors Poorest Protectors of Intellectual Property Rights

by Jana Saulite

Business executives in the Baltic States, rating the performance of various state agencies in the protection of intellectual property rights, gave the lowest ratings to the work of their Justice Ministries and prosecutors, says a Coalition for Intellectual Property Rights (CIPR) survey.

On a five-point scale, the average assessment of the Justice Ministries on the part of Baltic business leaders is 2.36, while prosecutors received an average 2.43 points. There are differences among the respondents from the different states, however.

Lithuanian respondents gave their Justice Ministry an average of only 1 point, while the Estonians rated theirs with 3.5. On the other hand, Latvian respondents rated their prosecutors the highest, with an average of 3 points.

Highest ratings went to the state patent offices in all three countries - 3.47 points. Latvia's State Patent Office received the highest of the three - 3.79 points, while Lithuania's received 3.08 and Estonia's 3.15 points.

Above average ratings were received also by the Ministries of Culture, with an average of 2.5 points, and the anti-monopoly councils (2.76) and the court system (2.68).

Business executives in Latvia gave lowest ratings to their Interior Ministry (average 2.09 points), Lithuanian entrepreneurs gave their Justice Ministry the lowest rating of 1 point, while Estonian company representatives gave their Customs Service the lowest rating of 2.63 points.

Estonian firms assessed their state agencies with the highest average points - none of them received a rating below the median level.