Publication: Neatkariga rita avize
Date: October 25, 2000
Author: Maris Krautmanis
Article: With stolen trademarks towards Europe

Today and tomorrow the Coalition for Intellectual Property Rights (CIPR) is holding a seminar for participants among foreign experts in the copyright field, justices from the Baltic states, high-ranking government officials from Latvia and journalists. Such seminars have already taken place in Russia, Tadjikistan, Georgia, Moldavia and other former Soviet countries.

It is sad and degrading that such a seminar should have to be held in the Baltic and especially so in Riga. This clearly indicates that intellectual property protection here remains at very low levels. Otherwise such a seminar would probably not be necessary.

Authors' rights disputes are nothing out of the ordinary around the world - Czech and American Budweizer beer, Canon is fighting Cannon, the American Nike versus the Spanish Nike, etc. yet now the respectable organization CIPR is turning its special attention to the Baltic region. In essence the esteemed guests, such as Justice Minister Labucka and several judges, are being invited not simply to converse and drink coffee, but are being invited to coffee. The diplomatically-inclined foreigners, of course, will not say so outright, they won't lecture on how court decisions should be taken on particular cases, they won't ask how long the foot-dragging can go on in adjudicating disputes against pirates.

One cannot say that Latvia can boast of nothing good at all in this realm - foreign musicians' copyrights are halfway under protection, at least the stores don't stock pirate recordings, which cannot be said for the marketplaces; lately the Customs service has become more stringent on the borders, seizing and holding counterfeit goods at their point of crossing into Latvia.

Yet this is still not enough. Latvia is the only state in the world, where the courts believe that Moskovskaya Osobaya Vodka is the property of Latvijas balzams, rather than the Moscow company Sojuzplodimport (SPI). While elsewhere in the world American company IDV North America wins in court against the makers of Russian vodka Smirnov, the Latvian courts have been inclined to rule in favor of the Russians. This doesn't mean that the losing side's representatives are weak or that these odd decisions were taken in light of some legal loophole, no; for instance, the arguments of Lb against SPI are simply ridiculous, the SPI lawyer is well-respected, yet Lb continues to triumph in court. Some of Latvia's smaller firms also enrich their coffers by using various brutal imitations - like the sodapop Fantastika, with its label reminiscent of Fanta; or the mineral water Evija, which at a distance looks exactly like the world's well-known Evian brand of mineral water.

Latvia, if one may use the metaphor of education, is an aspiring applicant to the EU - yet what institute of higher learning would accept one who does nothing else but copy from the person sitting next to him, and doesn't even blush when caught cheating? Moreover, cheating in intellectual property causes the European Union and other countries both monetary and moral losses. With the kind of inconsistencies currently evident in the Latvian courts, Latvia may never accede to the EU. The judiciary must be completely independent from other branches of government power, but it cannot be independent from the law, including common sense and feelings of shame… EU institutions have long declared, that they expect order in the intellectual property field from Latvia… Changing for the better is not a hopeless cause - you just have to expel the cheaters out of class.

Publication: Neatkariga rita avize
Date: October 25, 2000
Author: Maris Krautmanis
Article: Westerners to educate on copyright problems

Today and tomorrow the Coalition for Intellectual Property Rights (CIPR) is holding a seminar at the Latvian Society House. The seminar is dedicated to the practical enforcement of protective legislation on trademarks, patents and internet domain names, the influence of intellectual property issues on economic development and foreign investment in the Baltic states.

Intellectual property rights experts, judges from Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania, government officials such as Justice Minister Ingrida Labucka, as well as local and globally well-known company representatives and organization specialists will participate. The seminar is financed by CIPR, a public-private sector organization with the goal of improving the intellectual property rights situation in the Baltic states. Similar seminars have taken place in several former Soviet countries - Kazakhstan, Georgia, Tadjikistan, Russia.

The foreign experts have been following events in our country closely, and have read English translations of several NRA publications about scandalous cases such as the dispute between Moscow's Sojuzplodimport and Latvijas balzams about the Moskovskaya Osobaya Vodka trademark; Adidas, Reebok and Nike product counterfeiting, and others. Seminar participants and journalists also received materials outlining various ongoing copyright disputes in the Baltic states. The CIPR representatives acknowledged that the Baltic region is especially important, because these are EU member candidate states, currently located between the EU and Russia. CIPR experts believe that western companies lose almost $1.5 billion USD dollars from rampant violations of copyright in Russia; in Latvia these losses could be estimated in the several millions of dollars. "Moreover, we are speaking not only of financial losses," emphasized CIPR Executive Policy Committee chair Mary-Ann Alford. "Counterfeits and copies hurt the state economy, the reputation of famous corporations and the health of consumers. People can die from ingesting contraband alcoholic beverage and food products."