February 3, 2004

BUCHAREST CONFERENCE ADDRESSES INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS

An all-day conference on "Intellectual Property Rights" (IPR) was held in Bucharest Tuesday to address the issues of intellectual property protection, piracy and counterfeiting. The event, which was attended by more than one hundred selected invitees representing Romanian law enforcement organizations and judiciary, local and foreign businesses and IPR experts, was held at the Marriott Grand Hotel. It was jointly sponsored by the U.S. Embassy and the American Chamber of Commerce in Romania. Among featured speakers were U.S. Ambassador Michael Guest, the Delegate Minister for Control Activities, Ionel Blanculescu, and the President of the American Chamber of Commerce, Obie Moore.

In the opening session of the conference, Ambassador Guest declared, "intellectual property crimes are not victimless. Every time a game or program or disc is copied, hardworking individuals are deprived of the fruits of their labor."

The Ambassador and other speakers drew attention to the many consequences of IPR piracy in Romania, including very large losses to the state budget through unpaid customs duties, VAT, wage and profits taxes, underperformance of the Romanian economy through fewer jobs created, emigration of talented professionals, especially in the software industry, unfair competition, and reduced foreign direct investment.

An often-heard message from conference attendees was that legislation is not the problem in Romania, but rather weak enforcement of existing law. The training of law enforcement and customs officials is seen as improving, although more is needed. A consensus view was that there is still a lack of a firm commitment from Romanian judicial authorities to tackle the issue of protecting intellectual property, a weakness that, in the opinion of some panelists, could even bring U.S. trade actions against Romania.

The U.S. Embassy and American Chamber of Commerce hope that this conference will serve as a "spring board" for action against counterfeiters and those persons and companies illegally selling pirated products.