Russian IP Piracy Remains Rampant, Congress Told

by Glen Shapiro, LawAndTax-News.com, New York

20 May 2005

Damning testimony on IP piracy given this week to a hearing before the US House Judiciary Committee panel on intellectual property threatens Russia's bid to join the World Trade Organisation.

Victoria Espinel, the principal US trade negotiator on intellectual property rights protection, told the hearing that the level of copyright piracy in Russia has increased dramatically, and the adverse effects on American owners of copyrights are compounded by the fact that Russia has become a major exporter of pirated material.

The annual Special 301 Priority Watch List released by the USTR recently cited concerns over piracy of CDs and DVDs in Russia as well as Internet piracy of copyrighted works. The USTR plans to conduct an out-of-cycle review in 2005 to monitor progress by Russia on a number of issues involving intellectual property.

Espinel said that there is a bilateral working group between USTR and Rospatent, the Russian Federal Service for Intellectual Properties, Patents and Trademarks. “Recent discussions have focused on Russia's enforcement regime, legislative deficiencies, including the need for a comprehensive regulatory regime on optical media production and Internet piracy,” she said. “Through these and other ongoing efforts we have seen an improvement in cooperation at the working level on IP [intellectual property] issues, especially from Rospatent and the Ministry of the Interior.”

Espinel said that the United States has made it clear to the Russian government that progress on IPR will be necessary to complete its WTO accession process.

Eric Schwartz, vice president of the International Intellectual Property Alliance, told the hearing that the White House must threaten serious trade sanctions and the ineligibility of duty-free imports into the US unless Moscow cracks down on intellectual property violations.

Bonnie J.K. Richardson, vice president of international policy for the Motion Picture Association of America, said reform must start with Russian President Vladimir Putin:"We will see no progress unless President Putin himself demands accountability from his senior officials." According to Richardson, many of the estimated 34 plants mass-producing pirated movies sit on government property and military installations, and that all eight plants raided last year are still in operation.

Rep. Howard Berman (D-Van Nuys) said the US has an opportunity to learn from its mistakes with China and get a "meaningful commitment" on intellectual property from Russia. He criticized the Bush administration for not having filed any WTO actions dealing with piracy against China. "That's billions of dollars in our economy."

Espinel said that Russian law enforcement agencies have taken some action, including raids by police, but “these actions have not resulted in the kind of robust prosecution and meaningful penalties that would deter the significant increase in piracy that our industry has observed in Russia.”

“We need to see improvements in enforcement of Russia's criminal law against piracy, improved enforcement at the border, and better administrative and civil procedures such as providing for ex parte procedures in civil cases,” said Espinel. “Russia has made little progress in permanently closing down illegal production plants and bringing offenders to justice.”

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