Japanese patent examiner learns during exchange program with USA.
Rampant piracy has its costs.
And members of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) are learning how steep the price can be.
The news site Monstersandcritics.com reports that the European Union “has put on pause” negotiations to sign a free trade agreement with ASEAN. Weak protection of intellectual property rights in countries including Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam is cited as a major issue for the Europeans. Instead of a free trade agreement with ASEAN, the European Commission decided to pursue bilateral free trade agreements with ASEAN member states instead.
This move should send a clear message to the governments of emerging economies: Do not ignore the problems of piracy and then expect full trading-partner benefits.
It’s a message that, if heeded, will help those not welcomed into EU trading agreements. That’s because bootlegged DVDs, CDs, luxury brands or medications are bad for everyone’s economy (except for that of the small group of thieves who run the piracy syndicates). Intellectual property infringements can help derail an established economy, but they can also prevent an economy from ever getting started.
The European Commission did announce, at the recent ASEAN summit, that it will provide 4.5 million Euros (6.7 million dollars) to ASEAN to help build judicial capacity, train law enforcement officials, and build awareness in the region. Programs like these are not especially new. The United States Patent and Trademark Office, for example, started a Visiting Scholar Program back in 1985 and now operates a successful Global Intellectual Property Academy along with other global initiatives. Australia and Japan are among other nations who have such programs.
The problem, unfortunately, is that despite what seems like a lot of money paying for intellectual property awareness and capacity-building programs, we are scratching the surface. There are millions, or rather billions, of people who have no idea what intellectual property is or why it is important to economic development. Consequently, we need millions, if not billions, of dollars – or Euros or yen – more to make a dent in the war on piracy.
Andrzej Zwaniecki has covered business, economic and related issues for America.gov and other U.S. public diplomacy projects. Earlier, he was a radio broadcaster, reporter and feature-story writer. 
Frank Pietrucha is president of the Washington-based marketing communications company Definitive Communications and a member of the Creative and Innovative Economy Center at George Washington University. Through his professional and pro bono work, he has campaigned for solid intellectual property rights (IPR) and their enforcement as essential to the advancement of developing economies and the strength of established ones. 
Comments (2)
whiteiknstudios
November 1, 2009 at 16:40 EST
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Your article hit me right where it counts. There are many of us these days, who make our living off of “intellectual property”. I work more in the marketing and advertising arena, but many of my clients are people on the forefront of new and innovative ways of thinking ..of creating solutions to problems, and that is their bread and butter..To have that stolen..it is the same as stealing something physical, yet to the average person, trying to quantify it would be difficut. I agree that there needs to be more enforcement and better understanding by those nations who seem to condone this piracy that we do all pay a price when anything is stolen..physical or intellectual…
david baer
December 14, 2009 at 10:57 EST
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