IPR: PIRACY DEMARCHE DELIVERED

UNCLAS YEREVAN 002210 SIPDIS SENSITIVE E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ECON ETRD KIPR KPAO AM WTRO SUBJECT: IPR: PIRACY DEMARCHE DELIVERED Ref: STATE 214134 ¶1. (U) Sensitive But Unclassified. Please protect accordingly. -------------- SUMMARY -------------- ¶2. (SBU) Per reftel we delivered talking points on piracy of intellectual property to Deputy Minister of Trade Tigran Davtyan, October 6. Davtyan expressed interest in the Strategy Targeting Organized Piracy (STOP) and said that he and the Minister are always ready to work with us to address the problem of piracy in Armenia. (Note: Pirated optical disks --music, films, and software -- are ubiquitous in Armenia. End Note.) ¶3. (SBU) Davtyan added that the Ministry of Trade has been pressuring the police to instate a proposed Intellectual Property Enforcement Team. Although the Ministry of Finance has set aside money for the team, other parts of government, notably the Ministry of Justice, are resisting the idea. Critics claim that the team will simply be another place for corrupt police who seek only to collect bribes. Davtyan also said that any pressure to enforce IPR laws would work best if met by supply side alternatives: licensed copies of western CDs or DVDs are currently impossible to find in Armenia, and the economy cannot support international prices for licensed merchandise. Unless some Armenian could work out some way of getting licensed IP goods cheaper, any enforcement effort would be like squeezing balloon, Davtyan said. RICHTER