Attending the Forum were over 250 participants from Governments, private companies, law firms, international organizations and various institutions concerned with developing, protecting and enforcing intellectual property rights in the central and eastern European region. The discussions focused on the economic and social implications of the current lack of protection for intellectual property rights owing to poor enforcement. Also highlighted was the value that improved enforcement could offer to local enterprises. Among the most important implications for the countries concerned are significant investment losses, job losses, tax evasion, the involvement of organized crime and terrorist groups, and health and safety hazards for the population. For local, newly privatized enterprises, protected and enforced intellectual property rights would improve their access to funding and new technology, and provide them with an adequate return for higher value added production and more research and development.
Current laws are often ineffective because of generally poor enforcement.
Efforts to improve the situation are hampered by the lack of resources and adequately trained personnel, relatively accessible technology for counterfeiting, poor understanding by local companies and populations of the benefits to them of protecting intellectual property rights and, in some cases, by a lack of political will. Governments and the private sector need to work together to develop the right conditions for effective enforcement. The private sector, for instance, can assist officials in training, in learning to identify counterfeit goods and in raising awareness of the value of brands to companies as well as of the benefits that such brands offer to the general population. Improving the coordination of intellectual property rights issues at national level, by creating National Intellectual Property Units, special task forces or other such bodies. Such coordinating bodies could, for instance, propose actions related to compliance with intellectual property rights laws, disseminate information on IPR matters and develop policy-related innovation in support of companies and industries.