Respublika (Russian-language daily)

July 17, 2001

Hundreds of Millions of Dollars - In the Wind (Headline, front page)

Five steps to rule-of-law and fair competition (Headline, page 7)

by Karina Inina

This sum is thrown away in losses every year in the Baltic states, caused by inadequacies in legislation and violations in the field of intellectual property protection. These and other themes were the topic of discussion at a roundtable organized by the Coalition for Intellectual Property Rights (CIPR) at the Park Hotel Ridzene conference hall Friday.

As usual, the participants sought answers to the eternal questions: who is to blame and what is to be done? There are many to blame, starting with the smallest entrepreneur, who fails to take care of his own trademarks, to the highest levels of state, which fails to consider intellectual property protection a priority of its economic policy. What to do? CIPR offered its five-point program, successfully applied in other countries.

CIPR (The Coalition for Intellectual Property Rights), a coalition officially representing international intellectual property rights organisations, from last November until March of this year carried out a survey in the Baltic States. Last Friday during a meeting at Park Hotel Ridzene CIPR presented the results of this survey.

CIPR has already carried out analogous surveys in the Russian Federation and the Ukraine. Questionnaires with relevant questions were distributed in the Baltic countries; after which the data were carefully processed. According to the main speaker and moderator, CIPR president Peter Necarsulmer, the survey revealed the following picture.

The problem of intellectual property protection ranks as the fourth in the list of most serious problems of the Baltic region that create obstacles to business development (after taxation, customs and government). Executives of many, if not - all, companies regard the situation in the protection of trademarks as extremely unsatisfactory, mentioning the mass scale of counterfeiting, piracy, drawbacks in legislation, and failure to put the protection of intellectual property among the priorities of economic development.

The Baltic States annually lose 100 million US$ as the result of these violations. Because of the large amounts of counterfeit goods, sales in the "legal" private sector are decreasing, while consumers are losing faith in well-known trademarks, but, most importantly, the international reputations of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia are damaged, which automatically causes a drop in international investments. Government and customs agencies should pay particular attention to the transit of poor quality (i.e. - counterfeited) goods through these countries.

Apart from ineffective activities and policies of government institutions, private companies should also assume part of the responsibility for these problems. They should be more energetic and make active use of the available legal channels and possibilities for the protection of their trademarks, patents and copyright. The same survey revealed that only 11% of the companies had used the possibility to register their goods, only 14 % in one way or another tried to stop bringing the counterfeited goods into the country, less than 6% participated in joint raids with public institutions.

What should be done in the future? CIPR offered to the participants of Friday's meeting a five-step action plan, which has been already applied and proven its effectiveness in other countries. First, all three republics are urged to move the issue of intellectual property rights protection to the highest government level and make them a priority for governmental institutions and structures. Secondly, the entrepreneurs themselves should assume responsibility and use the already existing regulations and laws for their own benefit. They should show greater consistency in protecting their own goods, assist in relevant investigations, and interact more often with law enforcement institutions. Another suggestion is to focus on serious training programs and technical assistance for customs and law enforcement institutions. If the protection of intellectual property rights becomes a higher priority, then additional financial and human resources will also be needed.

Time will show the effectiveness of the five-step actions plan in the Baltic States. Nevertheless, the fact alone that this international meeting took place is a good sign.

All those interested in problems of intellectual property rights protection may use the results of the survey and CIPR recommendations.