ANTICOUNTERFEITING PUBLIC POLICY ADVOCACY

Combating counterfeiting and piracy is an important but challenging task that cannot be accomplished in isolation. Protection of IPR should not solely remain as a priority of state authorities but needs to be considered as a goal shared broadly by all sectors of society. As a result, public officials, international governmental organizations, industry and even consumers need to work together more closely to develop more creative and effective methods to fight this economic and societal problem. Engagement with foreign nations is necessary to ensure bilateral and mulilateral cooperation on intellectual property issues, and to put an end to state-sponsored theft of intellectual property and their cavalier attitude toward the proliferation of fakes and counterfeits.

1. Improve cooperation among enforcement authorities in addressing counterfeiting and piracy, including among the police, Customs and the judiciary.

An important aspect of enforcement is the cooperation and coordination among and between the law enforcement authorities. This would include the Ministry of Justice, the police, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Customs and Patent Office. While there may be already cooperation between these bodies, the level of cooperation needs to be improved. The establishment of sound cooperation and coordination structures is particularly important in the area of border measures, as customs authorities have to cooperate with other national agencies as well as foreign customs authorities and international agencies in order to effectively combat global counterfeiting and piracy

Recommendations

1. Foster administrative cooperation and coordination amongst domestic enforcement authorities through seminars, workshops and conferences.
2. Improve cross-border cooperation between the country's law enforcement authorities and international agencies or IP offices of foreign governments.
3. Encourage customs and policy authorities to participate more fully in developing and using existing technical tools to collect and share information. Share information with the competent customs authorities including relevant information to better identify and target for inspection shipments suspected of containing infringing goods.
4. Improve Customs’ risk assessment tools. For example, given the great differences in prices between authentic and counterfeit products, a system should be set up to flag up any imports of certain products that fall below a certain declared value.
5. Promote internal coordination among, and facilitate joint actions by competent authorities responsible for the enforcement of IPR.
6. Upgrade technical infrastructure and develop on-line network to allow competent authorities involved in the enforcement of IPR to rapidly exchange information on enforcement issues, including real time alerts information on suspect products, manufacturing sites, distribution routes and key sale points.
7. Research and make information available on technical tools and systems for prevention and investigation purposes (including tracking and tracing systems which help to distinguish genuine from counterfeit products).
8. Develop databases to collect, store and analyze data on the scope and impact of IPR infringements and national case law on such infringements and systems to enhance access of public authorities and private stakeholders to information.
9. Issue documents for the implementation of IP rights such as handbooks and manuals and make them available to the law enforcement authorities.

2. Establish effective dialogue and cooperation between the country's authorities, rights owner associations and other stakeholders

Effective cooperation between private and public authorities is a key element in combating counterfeiting and piracy. While industry has the primary responsibility for protecting its intellectual property, government plays a critical role in ensuring there is an effective IPR protection regime in place and enforcing the relevant laws and regulations. Rights holders have the technical expertise to distinguish counterfeits from original products and know the supply chain involved in manufacturing, distributing and selling their products, and can assist government in investigations and enforcements actions.

Recommendations

1. Promote the establishment and maintenance of formal or informal mechanisms such as advisory groups that would facilitate engagement between the country's authorities and rights holders and other relevant stakeholders including organizers of trade fairs, transport and logistics companies, retailers and payment service providers.
2. Undertake cooperative actions together with private sector to build strategies and to promote and spread successful private sector strategies.
3. Cooperate with private stakeholders to build an electronic information exchange and an early warning system on counterfeit and pirated products.
4. Enhance pre-seizure information sharing with rights holders about samples of products and packaging to aid Customs in determining whether goods are infringing.
5. Enhance information sharing with right holders about technological protection measures and circumvention devices seized, and provide samples to right holders of circumvention devices seized in order to allow right holders to alter the technological measures to render the circumvention devices ineffective. Encourage and facilitate dialogue between right holders and other stakeholders to exploit the potential of collaborative approaches and to place more emphasis on joining forces to combat IPR infringements. The focus on common interests should allow voluntary arrangements to be fostered that would supplement the legislative framework.
6. Consider the creation of an Observatory on Counterfeiting and Piracy, with membership constituted of representatives from relevant government, industry and other stakeholders. Such an Observatory could serve as platform to join forces and build coalitions between representatives from national authorities and other stakeholders for mutual assistance. The tasks and activities of such an Observatory could include responsibility for helping to put effective policy recommendations in place and assisting the country's public authorities in their policy, legal and enforcement work.

3. Expand IP-related administrative and technical capacity building.

A country’s effectiveness in protecting IP rights is in significant measure dependent upon its capacity to enforce them. Therefore, in addition to prescriptions for better legislation and stronger enforcement, methods for improving knowledge, enhancing training, and developing skill capacities and competences, should be put in place.

Recommendations

1. Enhance the knowledge on best public and private sector practices to protect IPR.
2. Enhance the expertise of persons involved in the enforcement of IPR by providing an on-line inventory of available, relevant training programs and initiatives offered and organized at international level.
3. Expand cooperation with international organizations with a view to enforcement authorities such as police, prosecutors and customs participating in seminars organized by specialist IP enforcement representatives from the World Customs Organization, Interpol, Europol, Euipo,  and UNICRI (United Nations Inter-regional Crime and Justice Institute). These enforcement seminars will secure a more sustainable flow of knowledge and learning throughout the country's enforcement agencies.
4. Organize more domestic programs and maximize the use of available funds offered at international level by participating in technical assistance projects with foreign governments (such as the EU Twinning projects) to support the implementation and enforcement of IPR.
5. Increase the number of specialized IP courts and prosecution offices throughout the country. Increase the number of security units in the police organization particularly in highly populated provinces where industrial and commercial activities are also intensive,  and train the staff working in these units on investigation methods with respect to diverse types of counterfeiting and piracy.

4. Increase public and political awareness of counterfeiting and piracy and the associated economic and social harm.

There is a need to increase public and political awareness and understanding of counterfeiting and piracy activities and the associated economic and social harm. It is important for consumers, rights holders and government officials to be aware of the counterfeiting problem, to understand the economic and social effects, and to know what concerned parties can do to combat counterfeiting and piracy activities.

Recommendations

1. Promote the adoption of measures to create and strengthen public awareness of the importance of respecting IP and the detrimental effects of IPR infringements.
2. Develop an overall communication strategy on enforcement-related activities including the use of new communication channels such as social networks and the design and development of an exclusive enforcement related website.
3. Design nation-wide awareness campaigns which will educate the public and decision makers on the harms and costs of counterfeiting and piracy and raise awareness especially among young people to enable then understand what is at stake in IP.
4. Work with international organizations to adapt globally tested awareness models to the country's needs.