KUWAIT IPR: NEW INFORMATION MINISTRY ASSISTANT U/S

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 KUWAIT 002251 SIPDIS SENSITIVE STATE PLEASE PASS USTR JFENNERTY AND JBUNTIN LONDON FOR EGOLDRICH E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ETRD ECON EINV PGOV PREL KIPR KU SUBJECT: KUWAIT IPR: NEW INFORMATION MINISTRY ASSISTANT U/S ON PIRACY PROBLEM, SOLUTIONS REF: A. STATE 94876 ¶B. KUWAIT 1965 This cable is sensitive but unclassified; please protect accordingly. Not for internet distribution. ¶1. (SBU) Summary. On May 24, emboffs met with Ibrahim Al-Nouh, the Ministry of Information's new assistant undersecretary overseeing intellectual property rights (IPR) enforcement. Econ/C congratulated Al-Nouh on his ministry,s recent raids (ref B),and asked for additional details on Al-Nouh's new program. Al-Nouh said he has met with industry to identify the ministry's weaknesses, increased the number of inspectors, and instituted a monthly reporting requirement for the inspection teams. He also spoke about the recently created inter-ministerial IPR coordinating committee that will, he said, form interagency inspection teams to carry out joint raids. Econ/C offered technical assistance, and urged the ministry to nominate participants for this summer's USPTO IPR Enforcement Academies. ¶2. (SBU) Al-Nouh was unsure about the status of amendments to Kuwait's 1999 copyright law. He said the ministry had recommended that the Ministry of Justice increase fines for piracy, but not jail time. Econ/C stressed that imposing prison sentences would be an essential element in deterring future offenders. Al-Nouh commented that since most people who buy pirated products say that the genuine products are too expensive, perhaps manufacturers should lower the prices of their proprietary goods to encourage consumers to buy genuine products. Econ/C strongly refuted this contention, stressing that it was essential that the Kuwaiti leadership understood that the issue of piracy was more than a question of price. Rather, piracy has a strong negative impact on the Kuwaiti economy by hindering job creation, investments, and protection for Kuwaiti innovators. Al-Nouh said he would be visiting Dubai and Manama shortly, and would talk to his counterparts about their strategies for combatting piracy. End Summary. -------------- New Assistant U/S Confronts IPR Problem -------------- ¶3. (SBU) On May 24, emboffs met with Ibrahim Al-Nouh, the Ministry of Information's new assistant undersecretary overseeing intellectual property rights (IPR) enforcement. �0A;Econ/C congratulated Al-Nouh on his Ministry,s recent raids (ref A),and asked for additional details on Al-Nouh's new program. Al-Nouh, who was promoted from a different department in the ministry about four months ago, said that he had not been involved with IPR issues previously and was surprised by the scale of Kuwait's problem, as described in the International Intellectual Property Alliance's (IIPA) 2005 Special 301 submission for Kuwait. (Note. The Director of the Artistic Works Department, whom Al-Nouh now supervises, was personally named on the report,s first page as a serious impediment to IPR protection. End Note.) To help improve Kuwait's IPR record, Al-Nouh began meeting with industry representatives to obtain their assessments of the Ministry's weaknesses. Al-Nouh acknowledged that the ministry has serious problems that will require coordinated action at all levels. ¶4. (SBU) Al-Nouh said that when he arrived, the Ministry's inspection teams were too understaffed to canvas the 5000-6000 stores in Kuwait, and so he increased the number of inspectors from 23 to 45. Al-Nouh called the preliminary results of the inspectors' actions positive, noting that they had raided more than 90 stores in 20 days and seized, among other things, in excess of 37,000 pirated compact discs. To track their progress, Al-Nouh has instituted a monthly reporting requirement for the inspection teams; he offered to provide this information to post. ¶5. (SBU) According to Al-Nouh, his inspectors face additional difficulties in trying to carry out raids. For example, shop owners often keep their storefronts free of pirated goods, but will procure counterfeits from a second location (an apartment near the store or a warehouse) upon demand. He also said that the pirates now recognizing the inspectors by face, and hiding their goods when the inspectors approach (the vendors are using look-outs to warn when inspectors are en route). -------------- A New Committee to Increase Coordination -------------- ¶6. (SBU) Al-Nouh said that he supported the recent creation of a "supreme council" on intellectual property rights. This inter-ministerial coordinating committee includes the Ministries of Information, Commerce, Interior, the Customs Service, and the municipality, and according to Al-Nouh, will form interagency inspection teams to carry out raids together. Al-Nouh was unsure who would chair the committee, but thought it would most likely be Ministry of Commerce Undersecretary Rasheed Al-Tabtabaei, since Commerce will be providing staff for the committee. He added that he had recommended that all committee members be at the assistant undersecretary level or higher. ¶7. (SBU) When asked if the U.S. could help provide technical assistance, Al-Nouh said that he needed better technology to facilitate information exchanges (and requested that the Embassy provide the ministry with a larger computer server). He told Econ/C that Microsoft had initially offered to help, but that they had been slow in providing assistance. (Note. In a February meeting with the Ministry of Information,s IPR committee chief, Microsoft offered to build a software tracking program for the Ministry, free of charge, to allow for better data collection on raids and seizures. Ministry officials agreed, but then complained that they did not have anyone to do data entry, and suggested that Microsoft should pay the salary of a ministry employee who would do data entry. Microsoft declined to fund the position, but has continued to build the software program. It is possible that this is what Al-Nouh was describing when he said that Microsoft was backing off. End Note.) Econ/C also invited Al-Nouh to nominate candidates for this summer's USPTO IPR Enforcement Academies (ref A),and suggested that Al-Nouh himself might want to consider attending. -------------- No Increase in Jail Time for Pirates -------------- ¶8. (SBU) Econ/C asked about the status of the long-overdue amendments to Kuwait's 1999 copyright law, which is not compliant with TRIPs requirements. Al-Nouh was unsure, saying that he was not very familiar with the legislative component of the IPR portfolio. Econ/C noted that the Undersecretary had recently told the media that Kuwait should increase the penalties for piracy, and asked for additional details. Al-Nouh said that the Intellectual Property Department had sent a memo to the Ministry of Justice's Legal Department, recommending an increase in the maximum fine (which now stands at 500 KD, or about $1700). However, this recommendation did not include increasing prescribed jail time. ¶9. (SBU) Econ/C stressed that imposing prison sentences would be an essential element in deterring future offenders. He presented Al-Nouh with information comparing Kuwait's penalty regime to other countries in the region and in Asia, illustrating that Kuwait's punishments are among the weakest. He also gave Al-Nouh an information paper on U.S. penalties for copyright infringement, and urged him to consider recommending stiffer prison sentences. Al-Nouh said he would be meeting the following day with the Ministry,s legal advisor, and would it discuss this with him. -------------- It's Just Too Expensive to Buy Originals -------------- ¶10. (SBU) Al-Nouh commented that the general public's IPR awareness is increasing. He said that most people who buy pirated products like CDs and DVDs say that the genuine products are too expensive and that they cannot afford originals. According to Al-Nouh, if manufacturers were to lower the prices of their proprietary goods, consumers would choose to buy genuine products rather than counterfeits. (Note. Al-Nouh is the second GOK official charged with IP protection to make this claim within the last few weeks. As reported ref B, a representative of the Ministry of Commerce's Patent and Trademark Office offered this same solution to Kuwait's IPR problem two weeks ago, at a Ministry of Information-sponsored conference on IPR. End Note.) ¶11. (SBU) Econ/C strongly refuted this contention, noting that prices of genuine goods are made more expensive by piracy, since companies have to compensate for the losses they suffer when their products are counterfeited. The only way to lower prices, he said, would be to foster competition among legitimate producers. Econ/C also pointed out that piracy is more than just a question of price, and enumerated the costs to Kuwait of piracy: lost opportunities for Kuwaiti copyright holders who are denied proper protection; fewer jobs for university graduates; loss of investors who might otherwise be interested in doing business in Kuwait; and an increase in criminality, the proceeds of which could be used to fund other illegal enterprises like terrorism. He stressed that it was essential that the Kuwaiti leadership understood these issues, and that they demonstrate their understanding by increasing the costs of violating IPR laws. One essential element of this, Econ/C added, was imposing jail sentences on pirates. ¶12. (SBU) Econ/C gave Al-Nouh a handout prepared by Bahrain's Ministry of Information that explained Bahrain's IP laws and outlined the penalties for violating them (in Arabic and English),and suggested that Kuwait consider a similar project. Al-Nouh said he would be visiting Dubai and Manama shortly, and would talk to his counterparts about their strategies for combatting piracy. LEBARON